


Love On The Clock

by Zirijava



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Online Dating, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst with a Happy Ending, Coming Out, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Mutual Pining, Online Dating, Pining, Slow Burn, Soulmates, Texting, timer counts down until the day you meet your soulmate
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-04
Updated: 2018-09-16
Packaged: 2019-09-18 06:15:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 30,078
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16989585
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zirijava/pseuds/Zirijava
Summary: Since more than a decade ago, a clock was launched that counted down to the day you were to meet your soulmate. Still, a few months more before turning 18, Lance witnessed two of his siblings’ Timers go off, both dreading and excitedly waiting for the day he’d get his own.However, the longing after a Timer, amongst other things, slipped by Keith, as his parents just died in a car crash that left his brother in a coma. He had other things on his mind than true love, but little did he know that soon his life would change for the better. One step at a time.Featuring; coming out, online dating, soulmates, pining and so much more. Not necessarily in that order.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: this fic was inspired by the soulmate trope from the movie ”Timer”.

**Trigger warnings:** this chapter includes a funeral and mentions a car crash and a kidnapping. (No visual descriptions.)

 

**Chapter 1**

**KEITH**

Sometimes Keith wished lies didn’t exist. Like, whatever you said that left your mouth would be the truth, but his brother kept reminding him that it wouldn’t work for someone like Keith. And Keith couldn’t help the scowl dominating his face because of– _fucking_ –course was his brother right.

It didn’t help Keith from wishing though.

Keith was in the cellar, surrounded by the loud, heavy music in his ears that lulled the rhythmic sound his punching bag made. It was just one of these things that made him feel like he could escape his body and become something else, something almost _bigger_. His problems would disappear and leave an emptiness in his body, as if all he was, was muscles, and with every punch, his fists landed on the sack would transfer his feelings of dread to the sack. Keith told himself that that was the reason for his numbness. That it had _worked_.

Every time Keith told himself it worked, but when his legs gave way and could no longer hold his body and his body crashed to the floor, his emotions came down with him. Slamming into his chest, taking his breath away as all he could do was stare at the ceiling and wishing that next time, _next time_ , his emotions would actually disappear.

In the beginning, Keith had decided that if he didn’t think about it, both his feelings and what had caused them would go away. As if it was all in his head.

But here he was, lying on the cold floor, almost as cold as him, and after today Keith knew he could no longer pretend it hadn’t happened.

Keith closed his eyes, inhaling and exhaling, the music still loud in his ears but he still heard the footsteps climbing down the stairs some seconds before a body laid next to him.

Keith sighed before he took off his headphones, still not opening his eyes. ”Do I have to?” he asked.

A hand gripped his and squeezed. ”You’ll only regret it if you don’t go”, she said, traces of British in her voice, the result of growing up in England before moving here to study, and then never leaving. Allura came here ten years ago, some years later and she met Keith’s brother’s eyes, both their Timer’s went off and she has stuck around ever since.

”No I won’t”, Keith lied. ”Can’t we push it back a little longer?”

Her hand squeezed his even harder. ”They wouldn’t want that, you know.” Forever a voice of reason and Keith hated her for it. She reminded him so much of his brother. ”Keith, look at me.”

Keith turned his head and tried glaring at her but the softness in her eyes melted the hardness away. Keith sighed. ”They wouldn’t have wanted any of this.”

A tight smile appeared on Allura’s face. ”None of you deserve this”, she said and then she let go of his hand, patting him on his shoulder before rising up. ”You should shower, I left the suit on your bed.”

And just like that, she was gone, Keith counted her footsteps until he no longer heard them. Then he just sighed, closing his eyes and willing time to stop or reverse or _anything_.

Keith hated that life wasn’t fair.

* * *

 

When Keith stepped out of his bedroom, suit on and hair clean, he heard Allura’s voice shout from the hallway, ”There’s no time to eat! Coran is already waiting outside.”

Keith sighed before going into the kitchen anyways, picking up a banana before heading to the hallway. Allura rolled her eyes at the banana in his hand, Keith just shrugged.

She was standing in front of the door, her big light pink coat on to shield her from the cool air of almost-fall and her comfortable-but-fashionable boots.

Keith stepped into his shoes and pulled a coat that was both too big _and_ too long for him. Allura gave him a sympathetic look but didn’t argue, and then they both left the house –Allura’s and Shiro’s house– to go to Coran’s bright orange Bug. According to Allura, her uncle had won the car at a lottery of some kind, whether or not that was true, was unknown.

Coran wasn’t _really_ Allura’s uncle, per say. When Allura came to study at the Uni here in Aruston, outside of Tucson, Arizona, she had signed up to live with a host family, convinced that there wouldn’t be enough dorm rooms for all the students. Coran was a teacher at the University of Arus and had written his name on the list for possibly acting as a host family for future students who don’t have a place to stay.

Long story short; they grew fond of each other and they developed a family-like bond, proving that blood isn’t everything. And that sometimes people are lucky like that, to meet a stranger that makes everything better.

But sometimes a stranger is all it takes to make everything worse.

”How’re you holding up?” asked Coran, trying to lighten the mood as he always does, when Allura and Keith entered the car.

”Not now, Coran”, Allura said and Coran sighed.

”Alright.”

And then silence enveloped them the rest of the way, with it the aching in Keith’s chest. he touched the fabric of his coat, feeling the now familiarity of it beneath his fingers as he bent his head towards his shoulder to inhale.

Keith closed his eyes and imagined his brother’s hand on his shoulder, the words of comfort escaping his mouth with that friendly gleam in his eyes.

 _God_ , Keith couldn’t believe he would miss this or that he would suffer through it without his brother by his side. His brother would hate himself if he wakes up.

 _When_ he wakes up, Keith corrected myself.

Shiro was in a coma, had been for the last two and a half months. The accident that had killed their parents had claimed his arm and conscious state.

 _If only I had been there._ Keith couldn’t help thinking it. He _kept_ thinking it, no matter if he tried to stop that train of thought or not it was like they would come crashing down on him whenever he thought about the accident. And the fact that he wasn’t there himself.

He wasn’t there.

* * *

 

They entered the church and sat in the front row, some would offer their condolences and Allura would politely accept them with a small smile.

As if that would change anything.

”We have gathered here today”, a priest began. ”To not grieve but _honor_ the lives of Nari Kogane and Hiroshi Shirogane, who had found each other before the Timer was introduced, and who now parted from this world and to another, still not leaving each other.”

Keith crossed his arms and stared down at his hands on his lap. The priest spoke words that didn’t register, it was all a muffled sound to him, drained by the echo of silence inside of him. Either Keith kept his eyes trained on the far wall or down on his hands, not daring to look straight in front of himself.

As long as he wouldn’t look up, wouldn’t look at _them_ , it would all be a dream. A nightmare. Unreal.

Keith had been asked if he wanted to hold a speech but he had declined, claiming that he couldn’t. It’s not like it was a lie because he knew that if he would stand in front of a room, looking out at sobbing faces, talking about his parents he would…

Keit really _couldn’t_ do it, even if he would try. Even if he would want to.

And so no speeches were held, instead, his friend Pidge had helped Allura fix something and when asked if Keith wanted to know what it was, he had hissed a ”no”.

Keith didn’t know how long they had sat there when he looked up to look at Allura, he saw her sad, tearful eyes and pained smile looking at him before grasping his hand and looking back at the priest.

For a while, Keith wondered if he was the only one not crying. He was stubborn like that, forcing himself not to accept this whole ordeal. he wanted to punch the priest and accuse him of being a liar.

He wanted to stand on the altar, look out at the crowd and shout at them that he would get _proof_ that this wasn’t real.

But it was.

 _Real_.

And that reality hit him square in the chest when a song started playing, the familiar tune almost _forcing_ him to snap his head up and stare at the front. A white sheet hung down, pictures blended into pictures into small home videos in synch with the song.

The song Keith’s parents had their first dance to, almost ten years ago.

_Looking from the window above, it’s like a story of love._

On the white sheet, Keith saw his mom and dad, a small smirk on both their lips and in front of them two small boys did the same thing. It faded into another picture, one where his dad threw him into the air when he was maybe three.

_All I needed was the love you gave. All I needed for another day, and all I ever knew._

_Only you._

A strangled laugh escaped him as Keith first saw the picture with his dad sitting with one small boy on either thigh and then the reshoot of the picture just a few years ago for his mom’s fiftieth birthday. Dad had convinced Keith and Shiro to find clothes resembling those they had worn as children, and they did. They even styled their hair to match that of their childhood selves.

When Keith saw the picture from Shiro’s University graduation he noticed the tears falling to his hands and Allura squeezed the one she was still holding.

The music got lower as a video started playing. A gasp escaped Keith at the sound of his mom’s voice. ”Keith? You sure you can carry that?” It was for one of their first vacations outside of the US, they had gone to Italy. In the video Keith was five years old, his hair almost nonexistent because of his mom’s failed attempt to cut it. Keith was carrying a plastic bag with what he think was groceries, in the corridor of a hotel. His hands were as far over his head as he could reach.

Five-year-old Keith nodded to the camera and his mom chuckled. ”Here’s our room”, said his dad out of view and the next thing that happened made the church fill up with light chuckles; Keith dropped the plastic bag on the floor and completely abandoned it as he walked to his dad and begged him to carry him instead.

Keith had seen that video a lot of times, mostly because it was in the collection of videos Shiro used to embarrass him from time to time, but also because it never failed to make him smile.

Not even now. Even though his cheeks were wet, eyes burning and heart beating too fast.

Keith wished the song in the background would never fade, that the pictures and videos would never stop.

Keith wished…

But when had his wishes ever come true?

The last pictures on the screen were from the wedding. Keith’s mom in her long white dress next to his dad who looked as handsome as ever. It used to take Keith by surprise looking back at the pictures of his dad from when he was younger and realize just how similar he and Shiro is. Was.

 _Whatever_.

Shiro and Keith were standing in front of their mom and dad at their official wedding picture. After they had gotten engaged before Keith was born, their parents had decided to wait with the wedding, wanting their kids to share the day with them, being old enough to remember it.

Keith stared as the picture faded into one of his mom and dad on the dancefloor, their eyes on nothing but each other. His mom’s white dress flowed around her but couldn’t compete with the beauty of her smile. And his dad looked at her, mirroring the expression on her face.

And then a sentence appeared in the middle of the screen, just below Keith’s parents’ faces.

 _They will be slow dancing forever_.

* * *

 

**ALLURA**

Allura hated seeing him this way. They had never been close, Keith and her, so it was unfair to expect him to open up to her. Their relationship had been very professional as Allura started dating his brother. Shiro wanted her and Keith to get along, and it took time, it really did.

But here they were now and Allura couldn’t help the ache in her heart that wished someone else was sitting beside her, someone that she knew wanted her there.

After the accident it had all been like a domino effect, everything around them just fell apart at the seams and they were the only ones left standing.

Without a chance to argue, Allura had all but _forced_ Keith to pack his bag and get in her car. It couldn’t be good for him to live alone in his family’s house, with the ghosts of his parents, the memories literally decorating the walls.

So Allura did what she thought Shiro would have wanted her to; she brought his baby brother into their home, prepared the guest room for him and tried making him dinner.

She tried reaching out to him every day but all he seemed to want was space, and to pretend nothing had changed, that he wasn’t in a house that wasn’t his. Sleeping in a room that wasn’t his.

Sometimes Allura wondered if she had made the wrong choice when she brought him in, but in her moments of doubt, she imagined Shiro’s arm around her telling her she did great. It wasn’t that she needed his comfort or words of encouragement, Allura just wanted him there. His support. She was strong, she knew that, but sometimes it’s okay to ask or want help from someone.

Keith and her weren’t that different really.

* * *

 

**LANCE**

”Lance!”, he heard as fast as he stepped through the door after a long day of school, and then a late night shift at his family’s Diner. ”It’s happening!”

”I’m coming, I’m coming”, Lance muttered under his breath before cursing. ” _Jeez_.”

” _Lance_!” He rolled his eyes as one of his younger sisters came to the hallway to drag him into the living room by his hand. ”Alberto’s is going off soon!” Novia, Lance’s twelve-year-old sister, squeaked as she pulled him after her.

”¡Lance, _apúrate_!”

”Sí, sí, mami”, Lance muttered.

Novia lets go of his hand when they reached the couch where mamá, Alberto, Jorge, and Clara were seated. Mamá held Alberto’s hand in hers with his wrist turned upwards.

”Mami”, Clara, Lance’s nine-year-old sister and youngest sibling, whined while sitting in their brother Jorge’s lap. ”How _long_ is it?”

”Diecisiete”, she responded, not looking up from Alberto’s wrist.

”But that’s so _long_!”

Mamá shushed her by saying, ”Quince”. Novia went to kneel in front of Alberto and mamá while Lance just leaned against a wall. ”Doce”, mamá said before the other siblings counted down with her.

”Once. Diez. Nueve.” Lance watched how Clara and Jorge tried peeking around Alberto at his wrist while Novia leaned closer.”Ocho. Siete. Seis. Cinco. Cuatro.” Mamá placed a hand by Alberto’s elbow before lifting his entire arm up, wrist mere inches from her nose. ”Tres. Dos. _Uno_.”

And then the trademark ringtone was heard from his Timer. Lance’s sisters and brothers and mamá stared at it in awe.

”I remember when Sofía’s rang those years ago”, mamá said a little nostalgic. ”And she was so _aliviada_.” She sighed as if to exaggerate her point.

”She was so scared when she booked her appointment that it would be blank”, Clara said and giggled.

Mamá gave her a pointed and stern look. ” _Mi vida_ , don’t speak like that. Having a soulmate who is not set up with the Timer is a tragic matter.”

Clara pouted before turning to Lance. ”When will _Lance_ get his soulmate?” she asked. Lance raised an eyebrow smoothly at her. ”He’s the next in line, right?”

”Why, after he gets his Timer, of course”, Novia said, rolling her eyes at Clara who stuck out her tongue at her and Novia did the same a second later.

”And when will _that_ happen?” Clara whined again.

Lance rolled his eyes in response. ” _Lindísima_ ”, mamá began. ”When he is a man.”

”You’ll never get your Timer then, Lance”, Jorge teased. Which was mature since he was fifteen…

” _Jorge_!” mamá warned and his youngest brother flinched, muttering _perdón_. ”We’re supposed to celebrate!” she exclaimed, turning back to Alberto. ”Tomorrow, _cari_ _ño_ , you will meet your _amor_.” Alberto blushed at, presumably, her words as well as the sudden attention. Alberto is Lance’s only older brother, he’s just a year older than him but he made sure to tease Lance about it all the time, still. The big difference between Lance and him was that ever since he got his Timer as a birthday present from mamá, he’s been awkward about it, noticing he didn’t even have a year until it was time for it to go off. 

And now it had.

Lance already knew what was going to happen now. When he had made eye contact with his ”one” and introduced her to mamá, they would have some sort of celebratory dinner together with his ”one”’s family. Just like they had with Sofía’s two years ago after she had met Martin. 

And Lance was supposedly the next one in line since his eighteenth birthday is coming up this summer. He wasn’t sure whether he was excited about getting his Timer or not. Or whether he would actually go through with it.

* * *

 

**KEITH**

The drive home was equally silent, a part of Keith wished for the rain to fall and wash this all away. It was as if the entire Universe was against him now, how in movies and novels it always seemed to rain when something bad had happened.

Something bad _had_ happened, but the rain wouldn’t fall. Instead, the sun shone brightly against the almost cloudless sky, as a last goodbye before the darker times that came with fall.

It had been a warm night when the accident had happened. It hadn’t rained for days afterward, another thing Keith hated the world for.

The car stopped in front of the local hospital. Coran turned in his seat to look between Allura and Keith. ”You going in?” he asked.

”Keith?” came Allura’s kind voice and Keith sighed stiffly, looking out at the mocking weather. ”We’re not ready yet”, said Allura after some seconds of silence.

”You can still go in”, Keith kept telling her.

”We’re in this together”, she kept responding. Keith would only cross his arms in response and resume his silence.

Coran didn’t sigh or try to convince them. Instead, he just nodded, just like he always did, before he drove them back to Allura’s house.

”You’re going back to classes tomorrow, right?” Allura asked Keith later when they sat on the couch eating noodles with the local news on so that Allura could stay informed. Or whatever her reason was.

Keith scowled. ”Do I have to?” He asked even though her voice had been quite stern.

” _Keith_ ”, she said with _that_ voice of hers. That voice that Shiro hated because whenever she used _that_ voice, he had to either drop the subject or agree to whatever she was saying or else.

 _Or else_.

Allura could be very intimidating when she wanted to be, and she knew it. Underneath the friendly and soft exterior that she had, she was a real fighter and passionate about everything that involved helping people. Her dream, when she was younger, was to become a nurse, but she had abandoned that idea in favor of becoming a lawyer. The career path had been tough on her, both because she was a woman and thus underestimated, but also because she was pretty and thus underestimated.

The other lawyers she faced at a trial or had simple arguments with tended to speak to her as if she got the job only through good looks and some had even accused her of having seduced her boss.

Allura had done no such thing, she just smiled sweetly at them before she said some well thought through lines that twisted the air in the room to her advance.

”They’ll understand if I don’t show up”, Keith said a couple of seconds later.

Allura looked at him. ”Your education is important. _They_ would want you to keep studying, Keith. Not give up.”

Keith sighed before putting down his fork and crossing his arms. ”It’s just that… If I go, I don’t want the others to look at me as if I’m an… _an_ …”

Keith couldn’t say it, the word got stuck in his throat and he wanted to swallow it down, force it to _never_ come up because that wasn’t him. That _word_ wasn’t him.

”An orphan?” Allura offered and Keith shivered before he nodded. ”It’s okay, that is understandable”, she said. ”But it doesn’t _change_ anything. I _know_ you, and I know that if you bring yourself to it you can shut all of those voices out. I know you can hang around Pidge and they’ll try to make you feel like nothing has changed.”

But everything had changed. Keith wanted to act as if nothing had changed but he still didn’t want to pretend.

He clenched his fists, trying to fight this silent war inside himself.

* * *

 

**LANCE**

He had a nightmare that night. He stood in a dark alley, surrounded by people with masks, telling him to choose one. Everyone Lance pointed at took off their masks to reveal emptiness behind, as if they were part of the Nazgûl from Lord of the Rings. 

Well, that was his initial thought, before they all surrounded him, sucking his breath away. _Literally_ , like some damn Dementors. 

One of them came so close that Lance could swear he was staring into black eyes inside the void, and that was when he heard it. The telltale ringtone of a Timer.

And then he woke up in cold sweat, his alarm clock chiming almost painfully in his ears. He was close to pulling his pillow on top of his head before he remembered his facemask and that mamá would probably _kill_ him if he discolor a pillowcase again. 

” _Lance_!” he heard from outside his bedroom. ”Breakfast is ready”, mamá said.

”And so am _I_!” Novia whined. 

Lance sighed. ”I’m coming”, he muttered before forcing himself out of his bed and to the bathroom. He stared at his face in the mirror. His green face mask looked like a mess before he grabbed an edge of it and peeled it off, contentedly watching all the dirt and blackheads no longer in his skin. He grabbed a bottle with moisturizer and squeezed some of it onto his hand before massaging it into his skin. He loved the feeling of fresh skin in the morning. 

”¡ _Apúrate, Lance!_ ” Clara was yelling. ”I need to _pee_!”

”Wait your turn!” He yelled back. ”Or go to the _other_ bathroom!?”

”But Jorge is there!” Clara whined.

” _Not my problem_ ”, Lance sang, turning back to his reflection, combing his hair with his fingers. He thought to himself: _should I style it today? It’s still fairly short so there’s not really that much to do with it but still… I mean, it’s boring to just let it lie flat against my forehead, I should probably do_ something _with it._ Had it been winter, he could’ve just hidden it under a beanie and it would have been great.

Another problem was in the shape of baby sisters. Novia and Clara would tease him until he would die if he would try making himself look hot, saying he looks stupid or saying he wanted to impress some girl. Both of which were _wrong_.

Well… Mostly, at least.

So, yeah, maybe Lance _do_ want to impress some girls in school, what teenage boy in High School doesn’t? There’s no better feeling than some girl looking at you with heart-shaped eyes as if looking at you makes them forget about the ticking clock on their wrist and the promise that came with it.

Just imagine looking so good someone would forget having a soulmate when they look at you? That sounds absolutely amazing, right?

It’s not like Lance would know.

” _Lance_!” Clara was yelling again, this time she even knocked on the door.

When Lance opened the door to leave, watching his sister fall forwards before catching herself, he didn’t feel even a little bit smug about it.Nope, not at all.

He felt _very_ smug, thank you.

”Watch where you’re going, sis”, Lance said with a smirk. She pouted before she stuck her tongue out at him, to which he rolled his eyes.

” _Buenas días_ , _corazón_ ”, mamá said as Lance stepped into the kitchen where she and Novia sat.

” _Buen día_ ”, he replied before sitting down at the dining table opposite Novia and mamá.

” _¿Como amanecio usted?_ ”

”Apart from annoying sisters?” Lance began, taking the milk from mamás outstretched hand. ”I can’t complain.” Novia snorted while he poured milk into his bowl before setting the carton down and picking up some cereals.

” _Mijo_ ”, mamá warned.

Lance turned to her with a smile before sighing. ”Fine”, he muttered.

”Now”, she began. ” _Eat_.”

* * *

 

**KEITH**

As if not given a choice, Allura had driven Keith to campus and told him to _try_. To walk to the first class, sit down by a bench and just _try_ to focus on what his professor’s saying and take notes.

Seemed easy enough?

The school building was broad and tall, brick wall painted white with a ceiling of glass. Keith thought the architecture of it was weird, looking like a mixture of a mental hospital and a greenhouse.

The inside could be described in the same way, the open spaces had the occasional plastic plants and tall white walls. No pictures or paintings clad the walls.

Keith made it to his first class, sneaked into the classroom as the previous class slipped out, and sat in the far back row. He didn’t want anyone’s eyes on him today. He just wanted to be left alone, treated the very same way that he had before taking days off from school.

The day after the accident he went to school as if nothing had happened, mostly because he wanted to convince himself that if he acted as if nothing had happened, it would make it the reality.

Fake it ’til you make it, right?

It didn’t work. And quite frankly it had only resulted in a lot of weird looks from fellow classmates, how they’d known, Keith had absolutely no idea.

”Hey, buddy”, came a familiar voice from beside him, before they flopped down on the seat next to him.

Keith glanced sideways at Pidge. ”You look tired as always.”

They scoffed before glaring at him, daggers that were more like balloon-daggers. ”I blame Matt”, they said before burying a hand in their backpack and then picking out a pen case and a notebook.

Keith snorted. ”You always do”, he said.

”With good reason”.

Keith couldn’t help the smile tugging at his lips, it was a nice feeling, one that did not feel all that familiar anymore, but welcome nonetheless. ”How’s the robotics going?” he asked and just like that Pidge didn’t look half as tired anymore, going from _I’m a zombie_ state to _I’m in a coma_.

Keith’s smile fell and his fists clenched as he thought of Shiro.

”We’ve actually come a long way! You should totally see those little robots, Keith. We were even allowed to race them”, they said gleefully, unaware of the thoughts racing through Keith’s mind. ”We had _begged_ the professor to do the whole robot fight thing, but our professor didn’t want us to ruin our robots.”

Keith forced himself to listen to every word that escaped his friend’s lips, focus on the familiarity of it instead of the dull ache inside of him.

It didn’t work.

* * *

 

**PIDGE**

They knew he wasn’t listening, that whatever storm was raging inside of him, it was nothing that Pidge could do. Allura had asked them to keep things normal for Keith, to go about the day as the two of them always had.

A funeral is supposed to bring you closure, but somehow he was worse now than he had been right after the accident. As if now it had all really sunk in. Pidge had wanted to go, just to support him and pay their respect or whatever but Keith had almost _begged_ them not to go.

So instead they helped in any way they could. They had called up Allura and asked her if it would be okay if they made a video for the funeral. She smiled brightly at Pidge before offering to help.

Keith’s parents had lived a happy life and Pidge didn’t want anyone to remember them with tears in their eyes, they deserved to be remembered with smiles and laughs. They were amazing people.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t how grieving worked. It forced you to think _what if_. What if I was there? What if it didn’t happen? What if I had done something? What if I said something?

What if. What if. What if.

The truth was that there’s no way of knowing. The universe always gets its way in the end, if not now then soon.

A long time ago, Pidge’s family was in Toys R Us looking for new toys and suddenly their brother Matt was no longer with them. It had been scary and their parents had gone crazy with worry. The thought that someone had taken their brother… All Pidge can say is, from that day on they were a different person.

Pidge’s family never stopped looking for him, not knowing if he was dead or alive, feeding on whatever small ounce of hope they could get.

And then one day, Matt came back to them. He had fought teeth and nail to get away from whoever had taken him. Their family never asked where he was, or what had happened because, in the end, all that mattered was that Matt was _back_.

Keith didn’t even have that chance with his parents, hoping for their return and it being a possibility and not just a dream or wishful thinking.

But Shiro, on the other hand, _can_ come back. He’s been asleep since the accident but he is stable, and Shiro is nothing if not stubborn, he wouldn’t go down without a fight, wouldn’t leave Keith alone in the world. He would never leave Allura, either.

Pidge glanced sideways at Keith as he was doodling or taking notes in his notebook. They wished they could tell him that and have him believe it.

They sighed, hating feeling hopeless.

* * *

 

**HUNK**

”Hey”, he greeted Novia and Lance as he sat down at one of the empty seats to the left of the row the McClain siblings occupied. 

”Alberto’s getting his ’one’ today”, Novia announced in way of greeting. She sounded extremely excited for her brother.

Lance rolled his eyes. ”Just wait until _your_ day has come.” He smirked at her. ”I’ll make sure you’ll never hear the end of it.” She stuck her tongue out at him and he rolled his eyes at her again.

Hunk looked between his best pal and his little sister with a small smile that was equal amounts fond and uncertain. ”So…”, Hunk began, looking at Novia. ”It’s Alberto’s big day today, huh?”

Novia turned towards him with wide eyes before she beamed. ”Yes!” she squeaked. ” _Today_! Can you believe it?”

Hunk chuckled, amused. ”Yeah”, he said. ”Damn, did time really go that fast?” 

Lance’s little sister crinkled her nose and said, ”Hunk. You’re not _that_ old.” Lance threw his head back laughing. Hunk glared at him with narrowed eyes. 

”No, I know”, Hunk said. ”But I mean, like, it feels like a week ago that Al got his Timer and now it’s zeroed out? Like, damn, I guess your mom’s gonna make another soulmate dinner for Al and his ’one’, huh?”

Novia and Lance nodded. ”Yep.”

”And Al’s probably gonna sit through all of it with a face as red as a tomato.”

Lance grinned at him. ”Probably”, he agreed. 

” _Damn_ ”, Hunk said, grinning back. ”I’m so joining. I wanna witness this, too.”

”Sure, buddy”, Lance said and winked. ”Imagine, though, if Al’s ’one’ is like Hispanic, too.” he started laughing at the horror on Hunk’s face.

”Dude”, he said. ”Not funny.”

”Yeah, it is.” Lance grinned before turning to Novia. ”It’s funny, isn’t it, Novia?” She smiled at him and when she turned to look at Hunk she wore a mischievous expression. 

”Yeah”, she agreed. 

Hunk glared at Lance again. ”You know you’re not a good role model for kids, right?”

Lance shrugged before smiling. ”Yeah, I know”, he said. ”But, you have to agree it’s funny. If Alberto’s ’one’, in fact, _is_ Hispanic and you’re gonna sit in a corner while the rest of us chat in Spanish, it’s totally _hilarious_.”

”Man”, Hunk said. ”For everyone but me. I’m gonna sit there enjoying the food.” He was silent for a moment, contemplating what he had just said. ”Now that I think about it. Me sitting at a corner just enjoying your mom’s cooking doesn’t sound that bad an idea.”

Lance smirked at him. ”Good save, buddy.”

”Hunk”, Novia said, earning his attention again. ”Why don’t you help mami cook?”

Hunk’s eyes went wide as he stared at her. He opened and closed his mouth several times before looking between Lance and Novia in confusing. A part of him was praying Lance would help him out but… 

”Yeah, Hunk”, the bastard said. ”Why?”

”I can totally do that”, Hunk said, still staring between them. His expression was hopeful. ”Tell your mom I’m totally gonna help her make Al and his ’one’ the _best_ soulmate celebratory dinner he will _ever_ taste.”

Lance grinned. ”Hunk, y’know it’s gonna be his _only_ soulmate celebratory dinner, right?”

Hunk waved a hand dismissively in front of him muttering, ”details.”

”Why don’t you have a Timer, Hunk?” Novia asked a few minutes later.

”You ask him that _every time_ you see him, _idiota_.”

Novia rolled her eyes. ”Well _he_ never really answers, does he?” she said with a raised brow. ”So why not, Hunk?”

Hunk shrugged. ”Lance, this is our stop.” He stood up, gripping his bag against his chest as he made to get up off his seat. Lance rose, too, putting on his backpack. 

” _Fine_ ”, Novia whined. 

”See ya at home”, Lance said before walking to the bus doors just as the bus stopped.

”Bye, Supernovia”, Hunk said. He heard her giggling from behind him and smiled at the sound. 

”You’re still using that nickname?” Lance asked, skeptically, when the two of them started walking towards campus.

”What?” Hunk asked. ”She likes it.” Lance just rolled his eyes but didn’t comment.

”So”, Lance started, a hand on the entrance door to Garrison High. ”How many ringtones do you think we’re gonna hear today?”

Hunk snorted. ”Dude, I think most of them get off on the _first_ school day. Not in the middle of the semester.”

”True”, Lance said and slid open the doors to reveal a corridor filled with fellow seniors as well as underclassmen. 

”And, anyways, _we_ shouldn’t think so much about it.”

”Why not?” he asked.

”Well, you see”, Hunk began. ”Because neither of us even _have_ one.”

”Have one as in a Timer or a ’one’ as in a soulmate. Because if it’s the latter then _dude_ , that’s rude!”

Hunk snickered. ”I mean a _Timer_ , of course, man. It would be really depressing otherwise.”

”Think about the aromantics”, Lance said. 

”Yeah but them getting a romantic ’one’ is like either of us getting a dude”, Hunk explained and quickly added, ”Not that there’s anything wrong with having a guy as a ’one’!” Lance rolled his eyes. ”I just mean that, you know, I’m more into girls so getting a ’one’ that’s a dude would be…”

”Awkward?” Lance suggested.

”More like _impossible._ ” They walked in silence for a moment towards their lockers. 

”I think you’re right”, Lance said as Hunk opened his locker and stuffing his bag inside it, taking out a pen case and a notebook. ”What do we have the first period?”

”Lance”, Hunk said. ”We’re reaching the end of our _last_ semester, like seriously, it’s just two weeks left, how can you not know that first period is social studies?”

Lance sighed. ”Oh, right”, he said and Hunk watched him pick out his textbook. ”How could I forget Professor Asshole?”

”Don’t you mean _Professor Wicked Witch of the Worst_?”

”Professor Old hag”, Lance started before adding with a smirk, ” _gar._ ”

”Ah! Good one, Lance!” Hunk exclaimed and raised a hand for a high five with a grin. Lance met him halfways.

”Come on now, man”, Lance said. ”We should probably head to class.” He slouched forward with a sigh.

”She’s probably just gonna tell us about some kind of dictatorial ideology today”, Hunk offered. 

” _Again_?” he asked.

”Again”, Hunk agreed, nodding. 

* * *

 

**LANCE**

Walking into the lesson, both Hunk and Lance looked equally bored and unenthusiastic. T he good thing, though, was that Lance knew they would both spend the entire lesson writing each other on the back of their notebooks, just like they do on all of Professor Old Blonde Bitch-Witch’s lessons. On one of those pages with their in-class chats, they discussed the similarities between her and Professor Snape. 

_Greasy hair, black robes, obsessed with dark arts and a sadistic smile… You must be a Snape._

Hunk and Lance couldn’t help but snicker the rest of that lesson, pointedly avoiding Professor Haggarus Snape’s gaze. 

* * *

 

It seems like Hunk had been right. For one hour and forty minutes, Professor _Fascism Is The Future, Children_ talked about Fascism and why it would be favorable for our government. The good thing was that no one in their class took her seriously and Hunk and Lance were far from the only students with a foreign background in the class. 

Maybe one of these days, a student _will_ take her seriously?

* * *

 

During the break between second period and Lunch, Lance’s mamá called to give him all the details about Alberto and his ”one”.

”Her name is Jessica”, mamá began. ”She came into the diner an hour ago during Alberto’s shift and as he was gonna take her order _it_ was heard, _mi vida_!” she said before imitating the telltale ringtones when a Timer goes off. Well, _two_. ” _Ella es muy linda_. She seems good for Alberto, too”, she went on. 

Hunk looked at him with a questioning gaze so Lance used his free hand to stroke a line against his wrist where the Timer would sit. Hunk nodded in understanding. ”Alberto?” he mouthed and Lance nodded. 

”Jessica and her family are busy at the night so there is no dinner. Instead, we will host a lunch on Saturday,  _cari_ _ño_ , you cannot miss it.”

”Of course, mami”, Lance said with a noticeable smile he was sure she could hear on his voice. ”Hunk’s coming, too. He wants to help you cook.”

” _¡Claro!_ ” said mamá. Lance turned to Hunk with a smirk before giving him a thumbs up. ”Tell him to be here by 7 in the morning.” Lance bit back a laugh, grinning as Hunk narrowed his eyes suspiciously at him.

”Sí, mami”, Lance said. ”I will.”

” _Adiós_. See you at home”

” _Sí, sí, adiós._ ” After ending the call and putting his phone back into his pockets, Lance turned towards Hunk with a smirk. ”Mamá asked me to tell you to be at our place at 7 am on Saturday if you wanna help her with the lunch.”

”Lunch? 7 am?”

”Yeah, apparently Jessica’s family couldn’t do dinner”, Lance replied with a shrug. ”And mamá always plans big meals for big celebrations, so it’ll probably take a while to cook, too, I guess.” Another shrug.

Hunk’s eyes narrowed impossibly more. ”You’re lying.”

Lance shrugged and said, ”If you say so.” And then, ”Alberto met his ’one’ at the Diner. Apparently, she walked in on his shift and when he was supposed to take her order, their Timers started ringing.”

”Naw”, said Hunk. ”That sounds adorable.”

”Yeah, I guess. And according to mamá, she’s really pretty. Al probably thinks so, too.”

”Cool”, said Hunk. 

”Yeah”, Lance said. 

”Will Sofía and Martin be there?”

”I don’t know. Maybe?”

”That’d be so special, man”, exclaimed Hunk. ”Like, whenever one of your siblings meet their ’one’ the other siblings sit at their soulmate celebratory dinner or lunch or whatever with their ’one’s.”

”You do realize how many people that would be, right?”

Hunk frowned. ”Dude”, he said. ”You’re totally right. Sofía and Martin, Alberto and…”

”Jessica”, Lance offered.

”Jessica”, Hunk repeated. ”Your, Novia and Jorge. And your ’one’s, too, of course. That’d be.” Hunk counted on his fingers. ”Five couples on Clara’s soulmate celebratory dinner!”

”If we find our ’one’ in that order, then yeah, I guess.”

”All this talk about dinner makes me hungry”, Hunk announced and Lance chuckled.

”Sure, big guy, let’s eat Lunch.”

They walked towards the cafeteria on the bottom floor, on the opposite side of the building from the entrance. Students were lining the walls, some in conversation while others were fiddling with their phones. 

Experimentally, Lance shot finger guns at a group of girls, offering one of his best pickup lines. ”I don’t have a library card, but do you mind if I check you out?”

The girls turned to him with raised eyebrows, a few of them were giggling. Simultaneously did their eyes go to Lance’s right wrist and saw it was naked. ”No Timer?” one of them said and scoffed. 

”Sorry”, another girl said, not sounding sorry at all. ”But we only go out with boys who believe in true love.” 

”Speak for yourself”, a third girl said, crossing her arms. ”I don’t wanna cheat on my ’one’.” The rest of their group nodded before turning their gaze to ogle their Timers. 

”Two more months”, one of them said. 

”Rough, buddy”, said Hunk and gripped Lance’s shoulder. 

”How can you _cheat_ on someone you’ve never even _met_?!” 

Hunk shrugged. ”I dunno”, he said. ”Maybe like, since they’re, you know, _soulmates_? They’re destined to be together and stuff.”

”Yeah”, Lance said. ”I get that. I just don’t know why every girl should be so obsessed with their Timer and just constantly _waiting_?”

”I guess it’s something to look forward to? Kinda like a birthday. Or a holiday like Thanksgiving or Christmas.”

Lance sighed. ”I guess you’re right.”

”You’re still against getting a Timer?” Hunk asked after they had both sat down later at a cafeteria table.

”Yeah”, Lance said. ”I mean, sure, I want to meet the future Mrs. Lance McClain but…” he sighed, dropping his gaze from Hunk to instead look at the tabletop. ”What if the Timer is wrong?”

”Dude”, Hunk said. ”What are you talking about?”

Lance met his eyes again. ”It’s like all the girls and some of the guys here at school!” he said, flailing his arms around. 

”You mean the whole ’sorry, I’m waiting for my soulmate’?”

”Yeah”, Lance said and nodded. ”Y’know… Maybe it takes away the element of surprise? The thrill that the person you’re with _could_ be your ’one’.”

”Like, with the Timer you’re assigned a person to love is a bad thing?”

”No”, Lance said. ”No, no, no, no, no, _Hunk_. What I _am_ saying is that how am I supposed to believe that one day I can just look a girl in the eyes and be like ’whoa. I am gonna spend the rest of my life with her’. I mean, come _on_ Hunk! What if my ’one’ is gonna be all disappointed if I’m not experienced in stuff.”

”Stuff?” Hunk parroted with an amused smile. 

” _Yes_ ”, Lance said. ” _Stuff_! Like, y’know, kissing. Relationship stuff. _Sex_ ”, he said and sighed again. ”What if she thinks I’m _bad_ at them?”

”If she’s your ’one’ then I’m sure she’ll be fine with it.”

”Yeah, maybe your right”, Lance breathed almost as if in defeat before he went back to eating his lunch. ”Our pact is still on, right?”

”The pact where none of us are gonna get a Timer unless the other does?”

Lance nodded. ”Yeah, that pact.”

”It’s totally still on, man”, Hunk said. ”How’s the swim team going?”

Lance sighed, chest lightening at the change of topic. ”It’s going _great_!” he announced. ”The relay is in just a few weeks and Coach says we’ve never been better!”

”That’s _awesome_!” Hunk grinned at me. 

”Yeah”, Lance said and grinned back. ”It is! This year, I feel like we can finally _beat_ Galra High’s stupid team.” Hunk punched the air enthusiastically with cheers.

MITT NAMN

 

* * *

 

She sat by the desk in her bedroom, buried in paperwork, a strong cup of coffee, her only source of energy.

Allura’s aim was to finish reading and signing some more papers and then just go to the kitchen and make dinner for Keith and herself.

She sighed, feeling a headache starting in her head. Pressing her fingers to her temples in small massaging circles.

_Patience yields focus_

”No”, she wanted to tell him because if she took a step back even to just breathe then she is going to be enveloped in all those thoughts and things that she really, _really_ didn’t need right now.

Truth be told, half the time Allura didn’t even know what she was doing. Whether she should be more patient with Keith or not. Should she force him into talking to her about how he feels about everything that happened?

Should she push him inside the hospital?

Allura sighed again, rubbing her temples harder. She knew that that last part was more for herself. Not that it wouldn’t be for Keith, too, it was just that…

 _God_ , Allura missed him! And she knew that seeing him unconscious on a hospital bed with that occasional _beep_ _beep_ of his heartbeat would make it all so real. It would make the feelings she has tried bottling up just pour out of her, and she didn’t want that.

But she also didn’t want to feel like it had never happened in the first place. That Shiro wasn’t an important part of her life.

A knock on the door broke her out of her thoughts and she turned to the side to watch Keith step in, his hands in his pockets.

”Hungry?” Allura asked after a few seconds in silence.

Keith smiled at her, it was just a small smile on the side of his lips, almost nonexistent, but it was there. ”Actually”, he said before sighing and turning to look at the wall on the opposite side of the room. Pictures and paintings hanging in a neat order in silver frames.

Pictures of Allura and Shiro. Paintings by his mother.

And then he met her gaze again and said, ”Do you miss him?”

”Yes”, Allura said without a hesitant second. ”I bet you miss him, too.”

He smiled at her, eyes looking down at his feet. ”We can go”, he said. ”If you want.” Allura stared at him, not saying anything. ”To the…”

He turned quiet, eyes squeezing shut and she stood up, processing what he said. ”The hospital?” Allura asked and when he met her gaze he nodded. ”That would be…” she swallowed, frowning. ”You sure you’re okay with that?”

Keith shrugged one shoulder, releasing a strangled breath. ”I think I should–”, he said, swallowing. ”I think _we_ should go.”

And just like that they exited the room, went in a rush to the hallway and dressed in their coats before they were on their way.

Allura’s heart was beating impossibly fast and she couldn’t help but smile.

* * *

 

**KEITH**

He just laid there. So still if it hadn’t been for the beeping of the machine, noting his heartbeats, Keith would’ve thought he was gone.

”How’s he been doing?” Keith heard Allura talk to the nurse standing by the edge of Shiro’s bed. Allura sat on a chair by his side, gently stroking his hand.

”He’s stable”, the nurse replied. ”I’m sorry there’s not that much more I can say for now.”

”It’s alright”, Allura said and Keith knew she lied.

”But I _can_ tell you that visiting is good for him, there’s still a somewhat presence despite his current state.”

Keith looked to see Allura stiffen and turn towards the nurse with a frown. ” _Visits_?” she asked. ”Has someone else been here, too?”

A frown made its way onto Keith’s face as well and he turned to look at the nurse. She was looking between Allura and him. She was wearing the usual white robe, her dark hair pulled back in a ponytail and on her chest was a little name plate that said, _Rodriguez_. She looked to be around the same age as Allura and Shiro. ”Why, yes”, she said. ”Just the occasional volunteers here at the Hospital”, she explained. ”They thought it was a shame no one had visited yet, thinking that maybe Takashi didn’t have anyone. Even though the Timer on his wrist indicates something else.”

Keith looked down at his hands, ashamed of not having visited sooner. He turned to look down at Shiro again as if asking him for his forgiveness. Shiro was loved and cherished by a lot of different people, but ever since the local news covered the accident, only family and friends were allowed to visit. With the exception of Hospital staff.

 

* * *

 

**HUNK**

He stood outside the McClain villa by 7 am, just like Lance had said that his mom had told Hunk to be. Hunk was yawning slightly but the excitement was pulsing inside him.

That was until Mrs. McClain opened the door to invite him in. Behind her, chaos had ensued. Hunk heard shrill screams and a sound similar to glass breaking. 

Mrs. McClain just smiled at him, as if nothing was happening behind her, or maybe she was so used to it that she didn’t even care anymore. ”Hunk”, she greeted him with a bright smile before embracing him in a tight and warm hug. ” _Buenas días._ ”

”Morning, Lola”, Hunk said and grinned. 

”Forgive the mess”, she said after having invited him inside. ”My children insisted on helping us with the dinner.”

Hunk stared at what he could see of the kitchen floor and swallowed audibly. ”I see”, he said. ”You don’t think they’d be as enthusiastic about helping us _clean_?”

Lola laughed and patted his shoulder. ”Now that, Hunk”, she began, her Spanish accent as thick as always, but he was so used to it that he barely thought about it, having been friends with Lance since childhood. ”Would be asking for a miracle.” She smiled kindly.

”A miracle is welcome any time now”, Hunk said, sighing in defeat when Lola handed him a mop and told him to start cleaning.

* * *

 

**LANCE**

He felt almost impossibly well rested when he woke up, stretching his arms over his head with a yawn and a smile. Then he remembered what day it was and he wanted to sink deeper into the mattress.

Celebratory Soulmate Lunch™ for Alberto.

Lance would lie if he said he wasn’t even a little bit curious about this girl Jessica that his brother is destined to spend the rest of his life with. The awkward part though is that just because two persons are destined to be together, doesn’t necessarily mean that the two families are destined to even get along. If that would be the case, then Lance wonder how tonight will turn out.

* * *

 

**HUNK**

It took hours, _hours_ , to clean up the mess that the McClain siblings had made. There were flour and egg here and there. Hunk almost tripped on spilled milk when he tried cleaning it up.

”This wasn’t in the job description”, he muttered and sighed. All he wanted to do was make food that taste like magic, was that too much to ask for?

Apparently.

”Sofía and Martin are on their way”, Mrs. McClain announced. Hunk nodded, assuming he was the one she had addressed. ”They’ll be here in an hour.”

”Yeah, okay”, said Lance. Hunk turned to smile at him. ”Hey, Hunk”, he said and grinned at his best friend. ”You’re here early.” And then he looked at Hunk, holding a cleaning broom and at his clothes, dirty from cleaning up wasted ingredients. Lance blinked a few times before crossing his arms, ”Damn, the two of you’re already finished with lunch?”

That was the wrong thing to say because, 1, it reminded his mom and Hunk that they had two hours – _two hours!_ – to figure out and prepare an amazing lunch for two people and it had to be _perfect_ if it’s to celebrate the first meal between two soulmates and their families.

2, because Hunk has spent _hours_ cleaning instead of cooking.

3, because of the look of terror on Mrs. McClain’s face. Hunk was worried she was either going to faint or have a panic attack.

4, the problem with Mrs. McClain being freaked out is because when she is freaked out she starts muttering things in Spanish or yelling things in Spanish and Hunk doesn’t _know_ Spanish.

5, because the whole household will start speaking Spanish and Hunk is left standing in a corner like a confused sheep.

It took a few seconds before a Spanish-speaking hell broke loose and Hunk knew that in an hour or so he’d be confused when someone will speak to him in English because he would have gotten used to _not_ understanding.

Lance hurried to calm down his mother, followed not that long after by three younger siblings that heard Mrs McClain scream who then proceeded to usher their mom to sit down at the dining table in the dining room and _breathe_ and calm down. At least that’s what Hunk think happened…

Anyways, not sure what he was going to do, Hunk kept cleaning, whistling silently to himself to make matters just a little bit less awkward for him.

* * *

 

**KEITH**

He was alone in the cellar. Just him and his punching bag. The music in his headphones was turned up so loud, he could barely hear himself think, which was sort of the plan.

Keith felt disgusted with himself. Kind of. he couldn’t help blaming himself. One day he’s at a funeral for his–

A punch as forceful as he could against the thickness of the red bag.

 _Don’t think_. _Come on, Kogane. Don’t think!_

Another punch and another punch. Keith started counting in his head, jumping slightly on his tiptoes.

_One, two, three, punch! One, two, three, punch! One, two three, punch!_

Keith felt numb. he felt like no gravity existed anymore as if he was jumping on clouds, forcing his fists to collide with the punching bag.

If he continued like this, then maybe the rest of him would disappear, too. Just like the gravity in the room. Just like the elephant in the room.

_One, two, three, punch!_

Maybe he had been here in the cellar for an hour or two. Maybe three. He wasn’t planning on stopping anytime soon. Not until _those_ thoughts were gone. Not until the world stopped spinning around him to instead swallow him whole and burn him. To _force_ him to feel something else. Something that wasn’t _this_.

Keith put all of his weight and strength in a punch that got the bag swinging backward by the sheer force.

If he stands here, if he just stands here for another second and that bag will swing back at him. If he takes a step forward, the weight of it could probably knock him over. It looked heavy. It had _felt_ heavy beneath his hands.

If he just…

And then it happened. The punching bag swung back at him, like a bull charging against its prey. Like a lion, zeroing in on an antelope. Keith knew that in the wilderness, he’d be dead. Razor sharp teeth would aim for his throat and in no time at all, everything would be blank or black.

He fell onto his back, staring up at the ceiling, feeling the cold floor against his back that made him shiver uncontrollably despite the heat of his work out.

He looked at the ceiling and thought of his parents. For the first time in a while did he let himself hold onto the thought of them, ignoring the ache inside of him.

Was it like that for them? To die? Was it like a charging bull when that car collided with theirs. What did they think when it happened or did they even have the _time_ to think at all? What did Shiro think? Who did Keith have now when they were all gone?

He sighed, closing his eyes. Keith wish he’d been in the car with them.

”Keith!” was heard over the music in his headphones and he opened his eyes to look directly into Allura’s eyes. It occurred to him then, that he had her, she was now the closest thing he had to Shiro and that damn device on her wrist was evidence of that. ”Are you alright?” she asked after having taken off Keith’s headphones. ”I heard something fall. I came as fast as I could.”

Keith stared at her, muttering, ”I’m fine.” But as he looked at her, he realized one more thing; he was the closest thing she had to Shiro, too.

* * *

 

**ALLURA**

”Keith”, she said softly. ”You know if you want to, you can talk to me.” He closed his eyes. ”Keith”, she said again.

”No”, he muttered. ”No, I don’t wanna talk.” He swallowed as if the words were hard for him to get out. ”I don’t want to talk to _anyone_.”

Allura nodded, even though he couldn’t see it. ”Alright”, she said and stood. ”I was thinking of visiting Shiro again. Do you care to join?”

Keith opened his eyes, staring at her. His eyes were wide and his mouth agape. She smiled softly at him and it took a mere second before he was smiling back and nodding. ”Yeah”, he breathed, sounding like a relieved sigh.

”Do you want help up?” Allura asked, to which he shook his head. ”Very well”, she said. ”Meet me in the hallway in twenty minutes.” After making sure he understood, she turned and left to go up the stairs again. When she had reached Shiro’s and her bedroom did she let herself fall backwards against the bed, her eyes locked onto the Timer on her wrist that continued to count the time since Shiro and she made eye contact six years ago. It was what had her the most grounded lately. Watching every adding second meant that he was still alive. He’s stayed alive for more than two months in this state, Allura wish she only knew how much longer she would have to wait.

She closed her eyes with a sigh.

Never in her life, had she felt so exhausted.

* * *

 

**LANCE**

At 11 sharp, they heard several knocks on the door. Most of Lance’s family and Hunk were waiting patiently by the dining table. They were all probably a little bit nervous, though Lance wasn’t sure whether mamá or Alberto were the ones the most nervous. Novia securely held the third place. Whenever Lance felt the prickle of nerves inside him, he turned to face those three. It oddly calmed him down to watch other people being more nervous than himself.

”Who should open?” Clara asked, eyes bright with excitement while Novia and Alberto stared at her with dread.

”Alberto?” Lance asked. He shook his head. ”Come on, bro”, Lance said, smirking. ”Your lady is out there! Be a gentleman and invite her in.” Alberto stared at him, not moving a muscle. Lance sighed, standing up. ”I guess I’ll do it then.”

” _No_!” Alberto shrieked, standing up with a force that nearly knocked the table over. When he realized what he had done or how he had reacted, he turned a bright red, his eyes were wide as he pointedly wasn’t looking at anyone. Lance held back a snicker. ”I’ll”, he coughed. ”I’ll do it.” He didn’t look as sure as he had sounded when he walked towards the door.

” _Who_ _is it_?” stage whispered Clara the second the creaking sound of an opened door filled the silence. ”Is it _her_?” No reply. ”It’s _her_ isn’t it!” Clara almost yelled now, excitement radiating out of her.

When Alberto came back to the dining room it looked like someone had painted his face red. Next to him stood a beautiful girl with curly brown hair and square glasses resting on the bridge of her nose. Her face was red, matching Alberto’s. Lance grinned to himself, thinking, _they’re already matching_.

Then her whole family walked into the dining room, facing the McClains and Hunk. Her _whole_ family consisted of her and her parents… Lance think before seeing them stand in front of him, he had forgotten that there are actually those who are the only child. Growing up with five siblings can do that to a guy.

”Hello”, mamá said before walking over to them. ”I’m Alberto’s mother but you can call me Lola.”

”Pleasure”, said a woman who looked like an older version of Jessica without glasses and with shorter hair as she offered a hand for mamá to shake. ”I’m Angie.” They shook hands, exchanging kind smiles.

”And I’m Peter”, said Jessica’s dad and shook mamá hand. ”And starving.”

Jessica chuckled and Alberto did the same.

”Did he just…”, Hunk leaned against Lance to whisper in his ear. ”Did he just say a _dad_ joke?”

Lance turned to grin at his best friend before nodding. ”Yeah”, he said. ”That was totally a dad joke.” Hunk grinned back.

”Oh, man”, he said. ”I love them already!”

When Jessica, Angie, and Peter sat themselves down, the rest of the McClains introduced themselves. When it was Clara’s turn, she started spewing the most ridiculous facts about herself and her hobbies when she was just supposed to offer her name. But what would you expect from a nine-year-old McClain?

Novia was almost the opposite from Clara since she barely got a single word out of herself. Lance was probably wrong, Novia was the number 1 most nervous person in the house right now. Lance almost felt sorry for her.

”The name’s Lance”, Lance said, shooting them his trademark finger guns.

”And I’m Hunk”, he said and waved. ”I’m a friend of the family.”

”I’m _this one’s_ ’one’” said Martin and waved at Lance’s oldest sister who rolled her eyes.

”My name is Sofía”, she said. ”Not ’this one’” a few chuckles erupted from around the table when she playfully ruffled Martin’s hair.

”It’s nice to meet you all”, Jessica said, almost shyly, when everyone had been introduced.

”The pleasure is _ours_ ”, insisted mamá.”¿ _Habla usted español_?”

Peter, Angie, and Jessica blinked at mamá. ”What?” the father asked.

Mamá smiled at them. ”I take that as a ’no’ then.” From next to him, Lance heard Hunk’s sigh of relief.

”I had more than enough of a day’s worth of Spanish this morning”, he muttered. ”Don’t need no more.”

Lance couldn’t help but laugh at that.

”Mami”, Sofía began. ”What’s for lunch?”

Mamá, who had remained standing throughout the introduction round, clapped her hands together and smiled. ” _Pizza_ ”, she said. All of their family started chuckling as mamá turned to the kitchen. ”Hunk”, she called after a few seconds and Hunk quickly stood to go to the kitchen.

Peter leaned against the corner where Sofía and Martin sat. ” _So_ ”, he started, smiling uncertainly at them. ”Since you’ve had one of these before. Is this standard?”

”For our celebratory meal, mamá and Lola made us some really delicious–”, Martin started saying but was interrupted by a hand on his mouth.

” _Pizza_ ”, Sofía finished.

”But”, Clara began, earning a glare from Sofía that shut her up. She was probably right, though, not a good first impression to let Jessica’s parents know that Sofía and Martin had gotten a full three-course dinner.

* * *

 

**KEITH**

To be honest, this was depressing.

Keith thought that it would make him feel better to see Shiro and to hear the beeping of the monitor.

But it didn’t.

All he wanted to do was rip them off of him and shake him to consciousness. To force him to wake up.

But Keith couldn’t.

Not when the only thing keeping him alive at the moment was those medical equipment around him. He was still alive and Keith knew that but still…

The door behind Allura, Shiro and him opened. Both Allura and Keith turned to face a man in a white robe. His hair was short and black, his eyes round and dark. ”Hello”, he greeted them with a smile.

”Hi”, said Allura while Keith just nodded slightly at the stranger man. ”I don’t mean to be rude”, she continued. ”But where’s the nurse Rodriguez? The one monitoring Shiro.”

The man smiled at her and Keith couldn’t tell if it was genuine or not. Then he turned his eyes to regard Shiro and Keith followed his gaze. The soft beeping of his heartbeat by a monitor was heard in the background, almost melting into the silence in the rest of the room out of sheer habit.

”She’s not working today”, he replied and Keith turned his focus back at the other occupants of the room. ”I’m monitoring over your husband in her wake”, he continued, eyeing Allura’s wrist, oblivious to the blush tainting Allura’s pale cheeks. ”There will always be those who claim that the Timer does nothing but make people suffer in waiting for their ’one’”, he continued, again meeting her eyes. ”But in this case, I’d say it is the only thing that can give you hope. You will be the first to know if something happens to him before anyone or any _thing_ in the hospital knows.”

Keith watched how Allura swallowed before smiling, saying, ”Thank you” and him nodding in return.

”If either one of you have any questions, I’ll be right outside.” After smiling at both of them in turn did he turn around and exit the room.

”Do you think he’s right?” Allura asked after some seconds.

Keith raised an eyebrow at her in question but her gaze was fixated on the Timer on her wrist. ”About what?”

Allura seemed to force her eyes away from her wrist to instead look at Keith. She opened her mouth and closed it several times before shaking her head. ”Nothing”, she muttered. ”It’s nothing.”

They sat for an hour in silence, neither one saying anything. Sometimes thoughts can consume you and sound louder than any voice could. And, even though Keith couldn’t quite imagine it, he figured Allura was busy with her own thoughts, too.

* * *

 

**LANCE**

When the pizzas were all eaten, mamá told Lance to prepare the next part of the celebration. He told Hunk to help him take out the dishes and they did.

”Tell me the most embarrassing song you can think of to dance to”, Lance said.

”Sexy and I know it?” Lance rolled his eyes before grabbing the plate Hunk was handing him and putting it into the dishwasher. ”Why?”

”It’s like a tradition for us”, Lance explained. ”Like the first time you eat with your ’one’ you have to dance with them”, he continued.

”What did Sofía and Martin dance to?”

Lance chuckled. ”Alberto picked Taylor Swift’s ’Love Story’ for them.”

Hunk grinned at him before handing him another plate. ”So you want to make him dance to an even more embarrassing first dance with his ’one’?”

”Yeah”, Lance said with a smirk. ”It’s my brotherly duty.”

”Sure, buddy”, Hunk said.

”So, I need a song that is _embarrassingly_ embarrassing.”

”Barbie Girl?” Hunk offered.

Lance shook his head. ”No, no. I mean, yeah, it’d be embarrassing and all but I need to up my game so that _he_ doesn’t pick the worst one for me when it’s my turn.”

Hunk seemed to consider it. ”What about Britney Spears?”

Lance scrunched up his nose in thought before shaking his head with a ”no”.

”Hmm”, said Hunk after a while of spewing any and all kinds of bands, artists, and songs. ”Abba?”

”Maybe”, Lance said, putting in the last dirty plate into the dishwasher and then closing it.

”Or Spice Girls?”

Lance stopped in his tracks, staring at the dishwasher before slowly turning to instead stare at Hunk. Lance jumped several feet straight up, punching the air above him. ” _Yes!_ ” Hunk just blinked at him. ”You’re a _genius_ , truly!” Lance said. ”Alberto is going to be red for _days_!”

Hunk and Lance walked out to the dining room again. Lance nodded to mamá before walking to the stereo, saying, ”So, now it’s time for our new pair to take the floor!” Lance grinned at Alberto whose eyes widened and his ears turned bright red. Jessica and her parents just blinked at him, confused. ”Hunk, will you do me the honor?”

”Sure”, he said and grinned at Lance, taking out his phone from his pocket and handing it to him.

”Thank you”, Lance said and smirked, opening the Spotify app and searching for the _perfect_ song. Because it really _was_ perfect, before handing it back to Hunk to put in the AUX cable from the small stereo by the corner of the room. ”Come up”, Lance said and waved at where Al and Jessica were sitting. ”Don’t be shy.” Lance felt Alberto’s eyes glaring at the side of his face, making his smirk widen. Lance turned around to see they were standing there behind him, both extremely stiff and uncertain. ”Push the button, Hunk!”

”Yes, Yzma”, he called back and a second later music started pouring out of the speakers and Lance grinned at the horrified look on Alberto’s face.

 _Yo, I’ll tell you what I want, what I really, really want_.

Jessica took charge, laughing, she grabbed Lance’s brother’s hands and started moving to the music. Damn, she even sang along. Lance was kinda impressed of his new sister.

They spun around, when Alberto was facing Lance he glared at him and Lance waggled his eyebrows at him with a grin. Lance saw the challenge in his eyes that screamed _revenge_. Hopefully, he’ll forget about this when it will be Lance’s turn. Or maybe Lance can manipulate the stereo to use songs that he wouldn’t mind dancing his first dance to.

Some time, while they danced, Lance’s grin disappeared and the joy inside him did the same. He looked at the happiness on his brother’s and Jessica’s faces and the mischievous joy inside him disappeared and became something akin to longing. Longing to one day doing this, too. To one day having this, too.

The embarrassing song.

The unchoreographed dancing.

The awkward meal with the promise of a future.

The looking into someone’s eyes and hearing a ringtone go off.

Lance swallowed, knowing that the only thing that could give him any of those was the one thing he wasn’t sure he wanted. At least not yet and not with the pact that Hunk and he had made.

When the dancing was over and it was time for Jessica and her parents to go back to their home, Lance said goodbye to Hunk who left, too, before sneaking into his own room and closing the door behind him. Welcoming the silence of being alone.

* * *

**KEITH**

”There’s a new alien documentary on Netflix”, said Pidge the moment Keith opened the door. Allura had gotten back from the hospital just ten minutes earlier. ”And _you._ ” They pointed at him. ”Are going to watch it with me.”

Keith blinked at them before moving out of the way to invite Pidge in. ”Nice to see you, too”, he muttered.

They shrugged before eyeing the corridor. ”Which is your room?”

Keith followed their gaze. ”Uhm”, he said. ”The guest room. But.” Pidge turned to him. ”Let’s watch in the living room instead.”

Pidge frowned a little before nodding. ”Sure”, they said and they both walked to said room. They sat down while Keith went to turn the TV and Playstation 3 on. Pidge raised an eyebrow at him.

”That’s where they have the Netflix app”, he said. ”You know this.”

They grinned at Keith as he sat down next to them, grabbing a controller and searching for the red icon. ”I’m just messing with you”, they said.

”Anyways”, Keith said and opened the search tool. ”What’s it called?”

”Search for ’extraordinary’”, said Pidge. And after he did they pointed at the correct one and he pushed play.

The music started playing, ringing in his ears for a while before he realized that that was the point.

The story began with some white text on a black background, introducing the story before showing the evidence. A small, square video was shown with Stan talking, looking for a UFO that some seconds later was shown on film.

”It’s pretty convincing, right?” Pidge stated as the words ”Over 195 documented events” was written on the screen.

”Yeah”, Keith said.

After merely five minutes, the two of them sat almost transfixed in front of the TV, Pidge with their elbows on their thighs, head resting on their hands while he sat on the couch with his arms on top of the backrest, legs crossed and eyes never leaving the screen.

Ten minutes later or so, Allura comes in to check on them only to look at the screen and say something about aliens and then, ”Scoot over” and began watching with them.

Even though Allura had been in Keith’s life ever since she and Shiro laid eyes on each other –literally– this was the first time they watched a movie together without Shiro. Pidge usually invited themself over for movie night, either with Keith or with Shiro, Allura and him. Sometimes they’d bring their brother, Matt.

”It seems almost too good to be real”, Allura said after a while when the documentary showed small clips of a small red light and marking on the wall.

Without any sign of hesitation did Pidge pause the movie and turn to Allura, saying, ”That Earth has the only living creatures _is_ too unbelievable to be real.”

”If we exist”, Keith added. ”Then it would be fucking naïve to think there aren’t any extraterrestrial life. They’re probably far more advanced in technology than us, too. Of course, they would want to shut us up.”

”Like they did with Stanley?” Allura asked, raising an eyebrow at Keith.

”Yes!” Keith said. ”If _you_ wanted to hide from the world, how would you feel if someone would start exposing your existence?”

Allura eyed him for a long moment, her expression not changing and then, ”Not unless I had something to hide.”

”Your _existence_ ”, said Pidge. ”Think of it this way. The extraterrestrial life has their own civilization, their own cultures, languages, and problems and their own advances. For now, humans on Earth don’t know about them and most don’t even _believe_!” They sounded almost scandalized. ”But, if we expose them, maybe they will attack us for it. We don’t know how dangerous they are or even if they are dangerous at all.”

”All we know is that they don’t like being noticed”, Keith added and Pidge nodded at him.

”Hmm”, said Allura, deep in thought with a finger against her chin. ”But you’re only talking about humans, right? I mean, the animals seem to notice them.”

”Yeah”, Keith said. ”There are stuff we can’t hear or even see that animals can.”

Allura nodded.

”Cats and dogs have been documented to react to things that humans don’t even notice.”

”You know what I get from this conversation?” said Allura with a small, teasing smile. Pidge and Keith simultaneously rose an eyebrow at her. ”That we should get a cat.” Pidge started laughing while Keith snorted. Allura looked very pleased with herself.

”Only if I can name them”; said Pidge and grinned.

”But of course”, said Allura with a wink. ”Unless it’s Starseed.” Pidge and Keith stared at her for a while before bursting out laughing.

Oh _God_ , did it feel nice to laugh again.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warnings: this chapter includes slight oral racism.

**ALLURA**

It was probably very cliché and she’d be extremely surprised if she was the first person in the world who found herself sitting in their office, listening to Taylor Swift. It wasn’t usually her type of music, but she couldn’t help agreeing that certain situations in life required her songs. Taylor really had a way with words.

Allura was currently a twenty-five-year-old woman, acting like a stepsister or step mum for her boyfriend’s baby brother. She also loved her job. She loved being a lawyer because it made her feel like she made a difference for people she didn’t even know personally. That her signing some papers could change people’s lives for the better.

Sometimes, Allura hated her job. Sometimes she would get a case that would make her feel worthless or physically sick. Sometimes not being seen as an equal by her colleagues made her feel like she had been punched in the stomach.

But every time that she was underestimated, she made sure to surprise them by standing tall and proud instead of giving in or reacting the way they would’ve wanted her to.

When Allura had started working here she would never have listened to Taylor Swift in her office, too afraid of what her colleagues would think or what they’d say, but now if someone as much as open her door to comment it, they know they’ll regret it.

So she was listening in peace. Music often worked as a welcomed distraction.

After listening for an hour or so on Spotify, a song started that she didn’t recognize but it was undoubtedly a Taylor Swift beginning with the acoustic guitar. When she started singing Allura could do nothing but stare at the papers on her desk, half of which she had already gone through.

_I remember your bare feet down the hallway. I remember your little laugh. Race cars on the kitchen floor, plastic dinosaurs._

_I love you to the moon and back._

Allura couldn’t breathe. she felt everything in her ache. Truer words than those has she never heard from Taylor before.

_Come on baby, we’re gonna fly away from here. Out of this curtained room in this hospital gray, we’ll just disappear. Come on baby with me, we’re gonna fly away from here._

_You were my best four years._

Allura didn’t know when it had happened, but some time while listening to the song, her eyes had moved from the papers to a frame next to her computer. A frame that held a picture of Keith, Shiro, and her. Looking at it and the memories were flooding back into her of the day we were hiking with Coran. The three of us were on top of one of the red cliffs. Coran counted to three and we jumped, Shiro and Allura, while Keith stood next to them just glancing at them, his arms crossed. Shiro had laughed when Coran showed them the picture, deciding they had to frame it.

He ordered three copies; one for their house and one each for their offices. Allura smiled at it before pausing the music, shaking her head.

”Enough of this”, Allura told herself. ”He’ll be fine.”

It’s been more than two months, now almost _three_ , and she wasn’t sure if she believed it anymore.

A few hours later and her boss invited himself inside Allura’s office, noticing her red cheeks and swollen eyes and then proceeded to tell her – no, _order_ her– to take the next day off to rest. ”You’ve been through a lot”, he said, Allura couldn’t help but feel like he tried patronizing me, but she still obeyed, not feeling strong enough to argue.

When Allura got home later that day, she noticed that her Timer was blank.

* * *

 

”What happened to him?”

”You remember there was a gash on his upper arm. I did the stitches and gave him antibiotics and an anti-infective syringe to keep the wound nice and clean. We noticed the other day that the infection in his arm had spread and was no longer responding to our treatment.”

”Infection?” Allura asked with a frown.

”Yes”, Nurse Rodriguez said. ”It was a very aggressive infection, to say the least.”

”So you decided to _chop_ his arm off?” Allura pointed at his now nonexistent right arm.

The nurse sighed. ”Look, miss”, she said. ”We are trying to save his life, your _’one’_ ’s life. We all want what is best for him, and if the infection kept spreading then the chances of his recovery or of him even _waking up_ would be very slim.”

”What will this mean for him?” Allura asked. ”When he wakes up.”

 _When_.

The woman looked at her with a compassionate expression. ”It means that after he wakes up, and when, or _if_ , he’s ready, we’ll make sure he gets a prosthetic.”

”He’s right-handed”, Allura whispered.

”We’ll make sure he meets a physiotherapist, too. He will have to learn to use his left arm in its wake.” Allura turned to look at him, her posture fell and she swallowed as she took in his appearance. It almost felt like she was looking at a stranger or Shiro’s secret twin.

* * *

 

**LANCE**

What got Lance out of bed this morning was the thought that in a week, School would be out for the summer and he was maybe, just _maybe_ , planning on singing Alice Cooper on the bus ride home after graduation.

After having searched through his wardrobe for a while, he decided to go for casual with a blue and white baseball tee and jeans. Lance's hair was a mess per usual so he hid it under an old Superman Snapback from when he went with Hunk to a convention and he wanted them to have matching Snapbacks.

Hunk got the Incredible Hulk. Lance was pretty sure it’s a pun and, knowing Hunk, it _definitely_ is. So Hunk got Lance to get one, too, and his love for all thing blue, Lance picked Superman’s. Also, he thought the logo was "pretty fucking neat"!

Anyways, Lance knew when he checked himself in the mirror that the moment he's outside and away from little sisters, he’d take a selfie and maybe change a few profile pics to it. It was only humble of him to share with the world how good he looked in a snapback.

Lance made his way to the kitchen where mamá and Novia already were, which didn’t really surprise him. ” _Buenas días_ ”, he said.

”Ah, Lance”, said mamá before approaching him to envelop him in a hug. ” _Buenas días._ ”

” _Buen día_ , _idiota_ ”, greeted Novia, sticking out her tongue at Lance. 

”Hello, troll”, he shot back while ruffling her hair. She started whining and Lance snickered. Naturally, she poked her tongue out at him again, to which he rolled my eyes. Lance pulled out a chair from opposite her before fixing his breakfast.

”Alberto! _Buenas días, mijo_.” Mamá’s cheerful voice was heard before Alberto was seen, which wasn’t all that surprising, either.

” _Buen día, mami_.”

” _Buenas días_ , Loverboy”, Lance greeted him with a wide grin. Alberto flipped the bird at Lance who started laughing, which resulted in him choking on his cereal. Novia patted her brother on his back.

”There, there”, she teased. Lance glared at her when he got myself under control again.

”I’m not walking you to the bus today”, he told her.

”Sandra told me English is canceled”, she retorted. Lance rolled his eyes. Sandra was one of her best friends. Once, after Novia had asked Sandra to sleep over, the two of them chased Lance all over the house with _hairspray_ …

It had been an extremely terrifying experience and Lance still have nightmares.

”Are you coming home before, Alberto?” mamá asked.

”Nah”, he said. ”I’m going there right after the Diner.”

”You’re bringing a change of clothes, _right_ ”, Novia asked.

Alberto rolled his eyes before nodding towards the hallway. ”I have a bag by the door with some clothes”, he told her. ”So no prob.”

”Am I missing something here?” Lance asked.

Novia smirked at me. ”Alberto is going to have dinner with _Jessica_.” Then she made kissing noises at their brother who looked terrified.

” _And_ her parents”, he added. ”Can’t forget those.”

”Oh, I’m sure you’d want to”, Lance said with a grin and waggled his eyebrows. Alberto glared at him, which only made his grin widen.

” _Whatever_ ”, he muttered. ”I’m leaving.” Lance just snickered. ” _Bye_!” And with that, Alberto left, closing the door behind him. Almost on queue, Jorge stepped into the kitchen.

”He left, right?” he asked.

”Yeah, just did”, Novia told him.

Jorge sighed in relief, his whole body calming. ”Thank _God._ ”

Lance snorted. ”Didn’t wanna see Lover Boy, hmm?” He asked.

Jorge raised an eyebrow at Lance before making his way to the table. ”Please tell me you called him that to his face.” Lance grinned at him with a wink and a finger gun. Jorge grinned back. ” _Sweet_!” he said, raising a hand in an offer and Lance high-fived him. How could he possibly refuse?

”I swear, that whole debacle at Saturday has set me off of ever getting a Timer.”

”You’re saying ’no’ to true love?” Novia sounded scandalous as she blinked at him.

Jorge just raised a brow at her. ”Uh”, he said. ” _Duh_! It’s just bullocks, anyways.”

” _Language!_ ” mamá exclaimed after Novia had gasped.

”Sorry, mamí”, he said. ”I mean _bullshit_.” Lance snickered as mamá glared at him before shaking her head, going back to emptying the dishwasher.

”It’s _not!_ ” Novia stated.

”Really?” Jorge sounded bored, picking up a slice of cheese for his breakfast sandwich. ”And what exactly do _you_ know about it?”

”I _knows_ that that’s what Sofía, Martin, Alberto, and Jessica has.”

Lance rolled his eyes. ”Would you _know_ that without the Timers?” He asked. Novia stuck her tongue out at him.

”And how old are you, anyways?” Jorge started. ”Five?”

Novia turned to glare at him. ”I’m _twelve_ , thank you very much.”

Jorge grinned at his sandwich. ”Sure.” Lance snickered.

Novia looked between Jorge and Lance before sighing. ”I should be at Hogwarts right now”, she complained and buried her face in the palms of her hands.

”You have practice tonight, Lance?” mamá asked.

”Sí”, he replied. ”It’s Monday so it’s right after school, per usual.”

Mamá clicked her tongue. ”I still don’t understand why the competition is after graduation.”

Lance rolled his eyes, having explained this to her _a million times_. ”I told you”, he began. ”That it’s because my Uni has graduation earlier than our competitors and they couldn’t before next week.”

Mamá looked at him disapprovingly with a tight expression on her face. ”I still don’t like it, _corazón_.”

”I know.”

* * *

 

It felt odd, walking to the bus alone in the morning, Lance was so used to having annoying little Novia babbling next to him. It was oddly entertaining at the best of times and extremely miserable at worst. However, when he met up with Hunk at the bus, he was glad to not have any sibling in his perimeter.

”Hiyah, Superman”, Hunk greeted him with a wide grin after taking in his appearance and taking the seat next to him.

”Same to you, Incredible _Hunk_ ”, Lance shot back with a wink and finger guns. Hunk laughed before he brofisted his best friend.

For the most part, we talked about everything _but_ school, unless the topic was of how much we couldn’t wait until it was _over_. Which was the literal dream.

One of the last things they talked about before leaving the bus was, of course, the lunch last Saturday. Hunk sounded extremely enthusiastic, as usual, about almost every part of the meal. The dance. The Meeting™. Soulmates. The _Dance_ , because _come one_ , dancing with your ”one” to ”Wannabe” by Spice Girls when the two of you were practically strangers?

 _Legendary_.

”By the way”, Hunk said as they made their way towards the campus and coughed, looking more and more uncomfortable by the second. ”I kinda got an appointment in a week.”

Lance raised an eyebrow at him in question. ”What kinda appointment?” He asked. ”Wait, Hunk”, Lance said, staring at him for a few seconds more, letting his eyes roam over Hunk's face. Now that Lance thought about it, his eyes looked a little glassy and his skin had a tint of green in it. Maybe? ”Are you _sick_? And you’re telling me _now_? I’m supposed to be your best buddy, you should’ve told me earlier.” Lance let his head hang limply against his chest before freezing in realization. ” _Wait_!” He hissed, head snapping back up. ”How _bad_ is it?”

Hunk was staring at him, not saying a word. He was opening and closing his mouth several times before shaking his head. ”No, no, Lance. Nothing like that. I’m good. Excellent. _Amazing_.”

”Then what is it?” Lance narrowed his eyes at him in suspicion.

”Timer”, said Hunk, dragging his left fore- and middle finger over his right wrist. ”I’m getting one”, he continued. ”Next week. At the clinic, you know.”

”Wait, wait, _wait_ , Hunk!” Lance said, gesturing wildly with his hands. ” _You’re_ getting a _Timer_? As in that device that counts down to the moment you meet–”

”My ’one’. _Yes_ ”, Hunk responded. ”We should keep walking so we don’t, you know, be late for _class_?!” Lance rolled his eyes before agreeing.

”Does that mean?” Lance started, eyes getting wider in understanding, once again. ”Does that mean that _I_ have to get one, too?”

”Oh my God”, said Hunk. ”Oh my _God_ , buddy, I totally forgot about that pact”, he stated. His eyes were wide as they glanced sideways at Lance who probably mirrored it. ”It’s not too late for me to cancel in case you don’t wanna do it!”

”I don’t know, buddy”, Lance said, sighing. ”You’ve already booked that appointment so you should go.”

”Really?”

”Yeah. If you wanna do it then do it.” Lance smiled at him as reassuringly as he could muster, waving a dismissive hand in front of them, hoping Hunk would believe it.

”You’re the _best_ ”, he exclaimed, grinning before requesting a brofist from Lance. Which he accepted, naturally.

”What made you change your mind, though?”

”About getting one? Ah, you know”, he began. ”Seeing Al and Jess together, I think it did the trick.”

Lance thought back to the lunch, the celebratory _first_ meal between soulmates. And then the Dance to an Embarrassing Song™ after it. He bit his bottom lip, nodding slightly. ”I know what you mean”, he muttered.

”I got something to ask you”, Hunk said. Lance raised both eyebrows at him in question but he kept quiet.

”What?” He asked.

”Do you mind coming with me as moral support? You know how I feel about needles”, he said and then for emphasis he shivered.

Lance grinned. ”I don’t know, buddy”, he said. ”Bake me some muffins and it’s deal.” Hunk grinned back. ”I wonder what time you’re gonna get. Like, a few years? Months? Maybe just _weeks_!”

”Hey, man!” Hunk said, sounding amused. ”Don’t get like that. If you’re reacting like that just imagine how _I’m_ reacting! I almost passed out after I booked it!” His cheerful expression slid off and worry took its place. ”What if…? What if it takes _years_ before it rings? What if it’s a mistake? It could be a mistake, couldn’t it? It absolutely could.” Then he buried his face in his hands. ”Man, this was a mistake.”

”Hunk”, Lance said. ” _Hunk_! It’s gonna work out great. You’re _Incredible Hunk_ , for crying out loud. You’ll probably just get a few days like it’s probably one of our classmates.” Hunk sighed, straightening up again, now with a calm air around him. ”Or _Professors_ ”, he added, waggling his eyebrows.

” _Ew_ , Lance. No, just no”, he muttered before groaning. ”Man, I’m gonna have nightmares.”

As his best buddy, Lance did his duty and _laughed_. What kind of best friend would he be if he didn’t? ”It’s meant to be”, Lance singsonged and Hunk playfully shoved his away. Lance grinned.

* * *

 

 

ALLURA

Allura was walking around the living room’s bookshelves the next morning, in search for a book, now cursing Shiro for his massive collection of books. As she was stroking the back of ”Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”, she heard footsteps behind her. Turning around with a grin, she said, ”Hey, _Starseed_!” He turned to look at her with wide eyes before blinking in what was either confusion or surprise. He was wearing a dark hoodie and jeans, his hair pulled into a ponytail at the nape of his neck and his backpack was slung over his shoulder. ”My boss gave me the day off, want me to drive you to school?”

Keith frowned at Allura. ”No?”

”No?” She frowned back at him. ”Why not?”

Keith closed his eyes and sighed. ”It’s just that… I like taking my bike, is all”, he explained. ”It’s peaceful.”

She nodded. ”Of course”, she said. ”Just… You know, if you need anything, Keith.”

He turned his head up to smile at her but it seemed a bit stiff and off, though she knew his life had changed drastically these past three months so she shouldn’t worry about everything seeming off, but she still did. ”I’ll see you later”, he said.

”Yeah”, she said. ”Call me if something happens.” He just nodded before going to the hallway, putting on his shoes and the next thing she heard was the door closing.

* * *

 

**KEITH**

Keith contemplated not showing up for school today. It was Monday. The last real Monday before summer break. Next week there would pretty much only be jump and play for three days straight before School is out on Thursday.

Who would care anyways if he didn’t show up? Probably no one but Pidge, so why Keith forced himself out of his bed, into clothes and on his bicycle was beyond him. It took a solid ten minutes before he arrived outside of school.

”You’re here surprisingly early”, Pidge said as Keith was locking his bike against the racks with his red chain.

He shrugged. ”Then so are you.”

”Fair point”, they replied and Keith rolled his eyes. He didn’t feel like saying anything. ”You wanna come see the robots before class?”

Keith blinked a few times, looking at them before blinking some more. ”Yeah”, he said, after a while. ”Sure.”

Pidge grinned and started walking to Campus, waving a hand behind them in a gesture for Keith to follow. ”I need to leave some stuff in my locker first.” Keith nodded and followed them. ”So…”, they started, while unpacking the content of their bag and placing it in a chaotic order in their locker. On Inside the locker door, there were several pictures, one with them and their brother, Matt, but there were also a few with me and Shiro. ”How’re you holding up?”

Keith hated small talk. He hated talking emotion. He hated talking about _this_. ”I’m fine, Pidge”, he said.

They poked their head out of their locker to glare at him. ”Don’t wanna talk about it? Sure, say the word and I’ll leave it.”

He sighed. ”It hasn’t exactly been easy, you know.”

Pidge stiffened after having reached for a notebook in their bag. Then, they sighed. ”I get it. You _know_ I do. I just want you to know that you’re my friend and that means that you can confide in me or escape the evil that is this world, _with_ me.” They tried grinning at him.

Keith snorted. ”Thanks, Pidge”, he said.

”Anytime”, they said cheerfully before slamming their locker shut. ”Now, let’s go see the robots.” Keith smiled at their cheerfully excited expression.

They walked together to the room where the robots were held, Pidge occasionally offering some technical piece of information Keith didn’t understand and probably never would. Knowing Pidge, Keith figured it meant a lot to have someone other than their brother to talk to about it. And for him, it was nice to just listen to them rambling about science and robotics and computers and just the kind of stuff that interested them.

It was a nice escape.

”This is Rover”, they said, pointing at a cylinder-shaped robot with arms hanging by its sides, its feet reminded me of miniature wheels that tanks have. ”I have been trying to install some improving programs into his system, but Slav said it’s too advanced.” Pidge scoffed. ”He keeps going on and on about the probability of it going wrong and how my knowledge in this universe isn’t advanced enough for something as complicated as robot programming.” Keith fought the urge to blink in confusion while Pidge continued to scoff. ”What does that even _mean_?”

Keith shrugged. ”No idea”, he said. ”But it sure looks cool.”

Pidge grinned at him, eyeing Rover again. ”Yeah”, they agreed. ”I just wish I could experiment more with him.”

”You can always beg Matt to talk to Slav, he’s pretty persuasive when he wants.” The smirk Pidge shot me was mischievous and sneaky and Keith knew that it was just a matter of time before said brother would complain to Keith for feeding ideas into his younger sibling’s head. It wouldn’t be the first time, though…

* * *

 

”I don’t understand why the principal made us take Psychology”, Pidge said as they left the robotic’s room, on their way to the first class of the day.

”Because they were too few as it was and we needed extra credit?”

Pidge waved a hand dismissively at him. ”It’s not like there aren’t any other people at this godforsaken school that can take the class.”

”True”, he said.

It didn’t take them long before they stood outside the Psychology classroom, pushing the door open to reveal the Professor and a handful of students already there.

”Last week we discussed attraction and why we consider some people attractive, while others not”, Professor Lubos began after Pidge and Keith had sat down. ”So today’s lesson, since we’ve already gone through the whole curriculum–”

”It’s canceled?” someone asked, sounding hopeful.

Professor Lubos narrowed his eyes at them. ” _No_ ”, he said. ”I figured that we could watch something similar to last week’s lesson while it still not being made for the purpose of education.”

Keith leaned over towards Pidge’s desk to whisper, ”A movie?”

Pidge shrugged and said, ”Don’t get too hopeful. We never know with this guy. It will probably be some kind of Soap Opera”, they replied before leaning closer with a grin. ”Matt told me that’s what he did when he was a student here. After one of his classmates had asked if they could watch a movie on the lesson on Friday if they had finished their homework on Tuesday’s lesson. Lubos agreed, but instead of showing them a movie, he started going through the first season of an old British Soap and after that, homework was mostly handed in on Friday.”

”Are you serious?” Keith asked, staring at them and they grinned back at him.

”I’ve never been this serious”, they said. ”You should’ve seen Matt’s face when he told me about it.”

”I don’t doubt it”, Keith said, grinning back.

Professor Lubos fiddled a little with his computer and the Projector before suddenly the video started. He quickly went to turn off the light as a narrating voice started speaking.

” _In last week’s episode of ’Ticking Hearts’, we witnessed, once again, the meeting of two soulmates as Josh met with his final three and locked eyes with Katy just a second before their Timers started ringing._ ” What Keith assumed was clips from said episode, was shown as the narrating voice spoke. A man in a black and white striped shirt stood with the tiniest mustache Keith has ever seen and a kind of flattering undercut with his long hair combed to the side to hang over his eyes. In front of the man –Josh?– stood three women, one of which hugged him mere seconds after their Timers went off.

” _Don’t forget to watch our season finale to see how their –as well as the rest of our couples’– lives has changed after The Meeting._ ” Ten people smiled and waved at the camera and Professor Lubos waved back. Five men and five women, all couples with a man and a woman. Keith was, unsurprisingly, not surprised by it, but he made up for it in annoyance.

” _But now, let’s focus on this week’s Lucky Searcher; Catherine Jones, a thirty-year-old High School teacher from San Fransisco. As usual, we searched the Timer’s database to find all Americans with a countdown that matches Catherine’s, and we round them up and brought them here to New York. Catherine will go through seven tests to determine which of the men willmake it to her final three. Let the hearts start ticking now!”_

The first test was apparently Catherine listening to all the men’s voices telling jokes, and out of those, she had to pick all the ones that made her laugh? Keith didn’t know how that worked really, apart from the fact that they couldn't see each other.

” _Since several studies in the art of attraction shows that laughter and humor are two solid proof of levels of attraction. If you find someone funny, it will be easier for you to also find said person attractive, and who doesn’t find it attractive when someone laughs at your jokes? I know I do!_ ” Pidge groaned while Keith just raised an eyebrow at the narrator.

He didn’t find the whole episode that exciting, it was filled with clichés and stereotypes and was rather obvious. One thing that wasn’t obvious, however, was when Catherine was to meet her final three at the end of the episode, it didn’t take long before the telltale ringtone was heard. But it hadn’t been Catherine’s…

Two of her suitors, two of the men she had picked as final three locked eyes and their Timers went off. There was a silence in the classroom as the students and Professor Lubos watched Catherine and the moderator stare disbelieving at the two men who couldn’t stop staring at each other. Keith couldn’t help but stare either.

The episode ended with the narrator interviewing the two men, Max and Andy, about joining the show to meet Catherine but instead finding each other.

Professor Lubos started sobbing when Andy told the narrator, ” _I came here to find true love and that is exactly what I got_.”

* * *

 

”If there’s one good thing that’s come from Timers”, Pidge started. ”It’s that all kinds of love are okay. Get a soulmate who is a girl? Awesome. Got one who’s a boy? Awesome.” Keith snorted but smiled nonetheless. ”It’s interesting how such a small device can monitor oxytocins well enough to create a perfect and practical countdown to the exact day you’re gonna meet someone who shares the same vitals as you”, they continued.

”I didn’t know you were this into it”, Keith commented, also not entirely certain what the fuck they just said.

Pidge turned to raise an eyebrow at him. ”Oh, you mean the Timers?” They shrugged. ”Well, yeah, but Matt’s been going on and on about getting one now, ever since Shiro met Allura and seeing how all that turned out.” Keith stiffened, almost frozen in place. _Seeing how all that turned out_. Pidge frowned at him for a moment before their eyes widened, hand grasping his shoulder. ”I’m sorry Keith!” they said. ”For a moment there, I completely forgot.”

 _Well, that’s one of us_ , he wanted to say.

”We can talk about something else.” Pidge sighed.

”No”, he said. ”You were telling me something. So… continue?”

”You sure?” They sounded skeptical but Keith assured them. ”Okay, fine. Matt just decided he wanted true love in his life, too, I guess. So the two of us started checking how they work and if it’s possible to make our own model of it. With some improvements of course.” They pushed their glasses up the bridge of their nose.

”Like what?” He asked. ”What kind of improvements? It seems pretty foolproof as it is.”

Pidge snorted. ”You can say that, yeah. But first of all, colored Timers would be really cool. We’re also thinking that there should be a way for it to be set up without hurting. Maybe even disguise one as an ordinary watch and not necessarily in such an exposed place which can make some people really anxious. ”

Keith knew that was a peak against himself but brushed it off and instead, he considered it. ”Yeah, I guess”, he said.

 

* * *

 

 

ALLURA

”I’m gonna leave you two alone. If anything happens, press this button right here and I’ll come as soon as I can.”

Allura nodded. ”Thank you”, she said before checking the nametag on the nurse's white coat again. ”Mrs. Rodriguez.”

The woman smiled at her. ” _Miss_ ”, she corrected Allura. ”Page me if something happens.” And with that, she turned around to exit the room, closing the door shut behind Shiro and Allura.

She turned to Shiro, taking in, yet again, his appearance. Earlier, there had been a bandage on his face which was now removed to reveal a gash across his nose with several stitches. The area around it was an angry purple with splotches of something akin to green. He looked horrible, and Allura pointedly ignored looking to the right of his chest, her body already aching because of it. Instead, she pulled the visitor’s chair by the wall closer to his side and sat down.

”I brought you something”, Allura said before opening her bag, grabbing the book and holding it up in front of herself with the front cover against him. ”’The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’ has been your favorite for as long as I can remember”, she continued with a nostalgic but bittersweet smile on her lips. ”So I thought I could read it for you. Miss Rodriguez told us –me and Keith– that you are present, albeit still not conscious. When I finish this one, I’ll bring you the second and third and on and on, how does that sound?” She chuckled a little but it sounded strained for her own ears. ”I’ll keep reading until…”

Grabbing the book harder, she turned it over in her hands and opened it until she found the page where the story began.

” _Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the Western Spiral Arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun._ ”

Outside, Allura could hear the rain tapping against the window. If she would turn her head to look at it, she was certain the drops had made the window blurry as if trying to put a protective shield between this little hospital room and the chaos of a storm outside.

The chill of the rain radiated into the room through the glass and a shiver went down her spine, but she ignored it in favor of continuing reading for Shiro.

” _By a curious coincidence,_ None at all _is exactly how much suspicion the ape descendant Arthur Dent had that one of his closest friends was–”_

_”Ah… llura?”_

_”–not descended from an ape, but was in fact from a small planet somewhere in the vicinity of Betelgeuse and not from Guildford as he usually claimed._ ”

” _Allura?”_

Allura kept reading for a few more minutes. The storm outside seemed to get stronger and stronger as the wind could be heard whistling against the windows, creating a sound that could only be described as an eerie cry, one that is not uncommon at Haunted Houses but is not expected in a hospital, apart from on Halloween.

Allura was positive the storm outside was messing with her head, that the whistling wind made her imagine words and voices speaking to her.

But then, after a sentence, when she paused for breath, she looked up to watch Shiro, only to see that he was already watching her.

 

* * *

 

**HUNK**

 

For other non-athletes like himself, spending a Monday evening by the swimming pool. But if one's best buddy is a guy who loves attention and is on the school’s swim team, well you have to. 

”It says so in the rulebook”, Lance told Hunk after he had made the team, wanting his friend to watch him _kick the others’ asses_. His words, not Hunk's. 

”That I need to watch you swim?”

Lance had shaken his head. ”Nah, Hunk”, he said. ”It says that you should support your best bud.”

Long story short, Hunk has been on each of his practices ever since, apart from the time when he had the flu or the time when he got food poisoning. It was scary, the whole food poisoning thing, couldn’t even trust food anymore!

The compromise that Lance and Hunk had made those years ago was that he didn’t have to actually _watch_ , that’d be boring for someone who wasn’t even a little bit involved in what they’re doing. So instead Hunk sat on the sidelines with his computer just surfing the web for this and that. 

And that was how Hunk found _it_! And _it_ caused him to stare at his screen with wide eyes and a salivated mouth. 

_It_ was nothing other than _Robotic Con_ , a robotic convention in Tucson with a tournament where robots kick other robots’ asses! And the best thing yet is the All-you-can-eat pizza buffet so that while watching robots fight robots, you can enjoy a pizza or five!

Hunk quickly checked when it was. July 2 nd . So in a few weeks, then. He found himself grinning the rest of Lance’s practice.

* * *

 

”Hunk”, Lance said as he walked towards Hunk from the changing room, bag hung over his shoulder. ”Have you ever noticed that washing machines are just showers for clothes?”

Hunk's eyes widened. ” _Dude_!” He said. ”They totally _are_!”

” _I know right_!” Lance grinned at him. ”I just stood in the shower when it _hit_ me”, he explained before pushing a fist against the palm of his other hand while making an explosion-like sound. Hunk quickly joined in and the two of them walked for a few moments doing nothing but making bad sound effects.

”Lance, man, you’re busy on July 2”, Hunk exclaimed later, when they sat on the bus going back home.

”Doing what?” Lance raised an eyebrow at him. 

Hunk grinned at him, punching the air in front of himself. ” _We_ are going to _Robotic Con_!”

”Robotic _what-now_?” Lance raised his eyebrow impossibly higher.

” _Robotic Con._ ”

”So, unless the name’s really misleading, I assume it’s a robot thingy?”

Hunk sighed longingly. ” _Yeah_!”

”So… why am _I_ going?” Lance still stared at Hunk with a confused expression.

”Because you’re my best bud.”

”Sure, but… _why_?”

”Because it says in the rulebook you have to support your best friend. Come on, man, please. There’s a _pizza buffet_! An _All-you-can-eat pizza buffet_!” Hunk grinned at him, his eyes were narrowing slightly as he looked at him. 

”Well… sounds tempting but–”

Hunk shook his head, making a zigzag motion with his hands. ”No _buts_. No, no, there can’t be any buts. Robots, Lance. _Robots_! And _pizza_.”

”Yeah, yeah, I get it.” He nodded slightly, waving a dismissive hand in front of the two of them. ”Robots and pizza”, he said. ”So you got an appointment and a hardcore robotics thingy coming up, hmm?” he asked with an almost monotone voice, but Hunk ignored it. 

” _Yup_ ”, Hunk said, popping the ”p” with a grin. 

Lance nodded slightly before saying, ”Good to know. You know, later me, Jorge and mamá are gonna sit up, waiting for Alberto to come home after his dinner with his _soulmate_.”

”Oh my _God_!” Hunk said, his eyes wide and mouth hanging slightly open. 

”I know”, Lance said with a smirk. ”We’re gonna embarrass him as much as possible. Mamá is gonna want too much info if the similar time for Sofía is anything to go by.”

”Oh, man”, Hunk said and shook his head. ”Al’s gonna wish he and Jess had started dating like in secret.”

Lance turned to grin widely at him. ”Yeah”, he said. ”Totally. But it’s our _duty_ as his family to embarrass him. Trust me, if Novia and Clara didn’t have to go to sleep earlier than the rest of us, they’d probably be savage to Alberto.”

”Totally”, Hunk said. ”Damn, I’m happy my family isn’t as Timer-crazy as yours.”

”And still _you’re_ the one getting one. Out of us.”

Hunk snorted. ”Yeah.”

* * *

 

**LANCE**

 

Lance was sitting in his room, headphones in his ears and his computer on his pillow. He had been sitting on his bed, rewatching the first season of Heroes ever since he came home from school five hours ago. Lance didn’t have a shift at the Diner today so he decided to just have some Lance McClain Time™. It was very overdue, to be honest.

”Save the cheerleader, save the world”, he said at the same time as Future-Hiro said it to Peter on the train. Remembering most of the lines even after such a long time since he last watched it, felt very satisfying.

Like maybe five years ago, when Hunk and Lance had started watching the show, he kept arguing why Peter was the best character whilst Hunk insisted that it was Hiro. Even though Lance agreed Hiro was really pretty cool and that it would be really awesome to be able to ”bend time and space”, Peter could do any of the powers that the others could, and that was the most hardcore shit that Lance could think of. If he had to pick one superpower, then _damn straight_ he’d pick Peter’s.

A string of light found it’s way inside his room as he noticed the door slowly but surely being pushed open.

” _Mamá_ ”, he whined, pausing the episode and taking off his headphones. ”What have I said about knocking?”

She smiled at him, walking towards where he sat on the bed before sitting down next to him. ”Lance”, she began. ”How are you doing?”

Lance blinked at her a couple of times. ” _Estoy bien_ ”, he replied before narrowing his eyes at her. ”Why?”

Mamá sighed. ”You’ve been distant ever since you got home, _mi vida_.” Lance swallowed, averting his eyes from her. ”If anything is wrong, you can tell me.” He felt her hand on his shoulder and when he turned back to look at her, she was smiling at him, a smile that could only be described as belonging to a mother.

”It’s just been a long day”, he lied.

She nodded before wrapping her arms around him, Lance almost melted against her embrace. When she had let go of him, she smiled and said, ”I spoke to Sofía this morning. She told that if you were interested, you can help out at the hospital this summer.”

”I can help her out?!” Lance exclaimed. ”Like with nurse stuff and that?” He was grinning at mamá who eyed him fondly but amused.

”No”, she announced, smiling. ”As a volunteer.”

Lance frowned. ”And what do those get to do?”

”According to Sofía, you can check on patients. Mostly those who are old, alone or… _Inconsciente_.”

”So the elderly and those in a coma”, Lance said. ”Sounds _exciting_ ”, he added, voice dripping with sarcasm.

”No need to be like that, _mijo_ ”, mamá said. ”It gives you at least something to do while you figure yourself out.”

Lance sighed. ”You mean College?”

Mamá looked at him for a while, unwavering, before she said, ”I still think you should’ve applied for something.”

” _Mamá_ ”, he complained.

She raised a hand to silence him. ” _No_. That is what I think. I respect your decision, sí, but I don’t agree with it.” Lance nodded. ”But if it’s what you want then that is how it is.”

” _Gracias_ ”, he said in a relieved and low voice, but not quite a whisper.

Mamá smiled at him before standing up to leave. ”I do think you should think about Sofías offer, though, _corazón_. It could do you some good”, she said. ”I know you love socializing.”

Lance rolled his eyes, biting back the retort that he’d much prefer to socialize with people who were his own age or _conscious_.

* * *

 

**KEITH**

After Lunch Keith told Pidge he wasn’t feeling great and that he’d just bike home, they were a little worried, asking him if it wouldn’t be better to just call Allura and ask her to come get him. ”She’s working today”, Keith lied.

So that was how he got here. In his own defense, he hadn’t planned to actually _go_ here. It was like he was being _pulled_ here, by some odd kind of gravity and before he even knew it, he had parked his bike outside of his home. Not Shiro’s and Allura’s but his parents’ home.

You know it’s weird about homes that they kind of have a soul, a spirit, all their own. It’s a place you can always come back to, but sometimes as a stranger, but it carries emotions and memories, too. Coming back to a place, a home, is like having all these emotions punched into you. For most, these feelings are partly relief, maybe coming back after a long day or trip. For others it can be fear or pain if they associate their home with those two things, maybe they had a hurtful and unsafe past or present. But that is not a home because a _home_ is supposed to be safe. A home is a place you’re supposed to feel like yourself and a place in which you will not be judged.

Not a lot of people have a home, and recently Keith has become one of them.

This house had been his home for almost his whole life, he don’t remember living in another home before this one.

Keith fished his backpack for his keys, after finally finding them, he put them in the ignition and unlocked the door that swung open of its own accord, as always. Dad kept saying he’d fix it but he never did. And he never will.

Keith walked inside, closing the door behind himself and setting down his backpack by the wall. The house was dark, only lit by the sun, shining through the windows. He left the hallway and instead stepped inside the living room, spotting the door to his room, opposite his parents’.

He quickly averted his gaze to instead look up and down one of the living room walls where pictures, memories, were lining the wall. Keith stared at him and Shiro from their childhood and fought the urge to count the quantity of them, already knowing they were the majority. There weren’t that many pictures of his parents together, one of them stood behind the camera, but there was one that stood out and that will always do so.

One of their wedding pictures. When they went through which of the photos to hang on the wall, they agreed on this one because of the emotions in it and how well it captured the spirit of Keith's parents. Mom was wearing her white dress with a v-neck, smiling shyly at the camera. Dad stood behind her, the hand around her waist not visible in the photo. Dad was wearing his iconic blue blazer and red tie, something Shiro teased him about at the time but he had proudly worn it, still, despite the teasing. He looked at mom, his eyes looking warmly at her.

The part Keith had always disliked about the picture, was the small sticker by one of the edges that said, ”TIMER APPROVED”. He hated that a marriage had to be _approved_ by anyone or any _thing_. His parents had loved each other, really loved each other. Their love shouldn’t need any other approval than their own. Just because they had decided after their engagement to get Timers, just to _know_ for sure, and they had sat next to the other at the appointment and the moment it was dad’s turn, they took one look at each other and the telltale ringtone was heard from the newly set up devices on their wrists. That moment was why there was a sticker on their wedding photo.

Keith didn’t know how long he had stood there, staring at the picture, feeling a void inside of him grow more and more hollow, sucking away everything within reach until he would seize to exist. A part of him hoped it was soon.

A few moments later, he had made it into his room, the room he had occupied for more than fifteen years. Last time he was here, the red walls were freshly painted, making his ”I believe”-poster no longer seem out of place. Keith's gray drawer stood beneath it, a mess of things laid unorganized atop it.

Keith looked at his unmade bed that he haven’t slept in for almost three months now but looking at it, it had never looked so inviting or soft but, at the same time, foreign, as if the bed wasn’t his own. He took a few steps forward to touch it when suddenly his phone started buzzing.

”Hey?”

” _Keith_!” Allura shouted on the other end. Surprised, Keith yanked his hand holding the phone away from his sensitive ear.

” _What_?!” He hissed back at her.

” _Shiro_!” she said. ” _Keith, Shiro_ woke up!”

* * *

 

 

**ALLURA**

 

Allura stood outside his door, sneaking a glance through the window to see a nurse talking to him and it felt odd that it didn’t feel odder, seeing him respond. Watching Shiro nod to whatever Nurse Rodriguez said felt strangely normal as if he hadn’t just woken up from a coma.

She stood there, watching them until the nurse turned around to leave.

”How is he?” Allura asked the moment the nurse closed the door behind her. ”He’s okay, right?”

She looked at Allura with a tight expression, her blue eyes soft with pity. ”He doesn’t remember what happened.”

Allura stared at her. ”He _what_ –”

”He doesn’t know why he’s here”, she answered. ”It’s not uncommon for patients who wake up from a coma to have forgotten things or faces”, she explained.

”But…”, Allura began, swallowing after having heard her voice crack. ”But a carcrash?” She shook her head slightly. If nothing else, the pain should be enough to demand being remembered.

”Let me just say that this isn’t the first time that a patient forgot the reason behind their hospital visit. Some have forgotten a language they’re fluent in. Some have even forgotten their mother tongues, only able to speak their second, and sometimes _third_ , language.” The nurse smiled at Allura, though it was stiff and almost calculating. ”It takes a while but then the memories will come back to them. _All_ of them.” Allura just nodded, her throat too dry to speak coherently. ”What did you do when he woke up?”

”I told you”, she said, glancing over her shoulder to look at Shiro in the bed. ”I was reading for him.” Nurse Rodriguez smiled at her, prompting her to continue. ”’The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”, Allura told her. ”It’s his favorite.”

”Ahh”, said the nurse as if she had been handed the last piece of a puzzle. ”There have been cases where a song –a song with personal meaning for the patient– has been able to drag them out of a coma. Some have argued that this song gave them enough _strength_ to wake up”, she explained. ”So, you reading Shiro’s favorite book to him was what plausibly gave him the strength to come back.”

”Can I just…” Allura started before sighing. ”Does he remember me?”

Nurse Rodriguez smiled at her. ”You were the first thing he asked about. He even asked me to check his wrist.” Her smile turned empathetic. Allura bit her bottom lip but nodded. ”You can go see him if you want to.”

”I–”, Allura began. ”I should call his brother.”

The nurse nodded. ”Do you want me to do it?” Allura shook her head. ”Okay. Page me if anything happens, I’ll be just around the corner.”

”Thank you”, she said and the woman grinned at her.

”I’m just doing my job, miss”, she said before turning around and walking away. Allura picked up her phone, fiddling with the buttons, noticing her hands were shaking. After a few tries, she successfully pressed Keith’s contact that she had renamed to ”Starseed” after watching that documentary with him and Pidge the other day.

” _Hey_?”

”Keith!”

” _What_!?”

Allura sighed, closing her eyes. ”Shiro. Keith, Shiro _woke up_!”

She was met with a stunned silence before a raspy breath was heard from the other line. ” _He woke up_?”

”Yes!”

” _He’s a-awake_?”

Allura smiled. ”Yes”, she said in relief. ”He did. He _is_.”

” _I’m on my way_ ”, he told her before ending the call. She breathed in and out a few times before pushing her phone down into her pocket and gathering all her strength before opening the door and walking inside Shiro’s hospital room.

”Allura”, he said. Wide eyes were fixed on her, something akin to relief shone in them. His voice was raspy.

Allura closed the distance between them, pressing a kiss to his forehead, her hands reaching for his shoulders. ”I love you”, she told him, her lips moving against his skin. ”To the moon and back.”

”Which moon?” he asked after she had leaned back to face him again.

She snorted. ”Why, all of them, naturally.”

”Naturally”, he parroted, a small smile took its rightful place on his lips as Allura parted her own, words on the tip of her tongue when the door slammed open. Both Shiro and Allura turned to look at the entrance where Keith stood staring at them.

”Shiro”, he said and sighed. ”Thank _God_.”

”Keith”, Shiro said, smile wide, eyes shining before the expression changed and his eyebrows furrowed. ”Where’s mom and dad?”

* * *

 

**LANCE**

It was late in the night when Alberto came home. Jorge and Lance started contemplating whether or not he’d sleep over at Jessica’s house.

”He’s too much of a coward to do that”, Jorge said.

”Yeah”, he agreed. ”But he _is_ our brother.”

Jorge smirked at him. ”Fair point”, he said. Mamá quickly shushed them, saying they were being foolish, talking about their brother like that. It just made them snicker, though.

Mamá, Jorge and Lance were the only ones awake when he got home. They basically had to join forces to make sure the Curious Duo would actually sleep. Not that Clara and Novia didn’t put up a fight. Clara even tried fighting with crocodile tears, which none of them bought. Jorge told her if she was so sad, she’d feel better if she just slept. Lance snorted.

The door was being pushed open so slowly it was hard to say if it was happening or not. Like a movie, someone put a huge deal of slow-motion effects on. It didn’t look like the door was moving at all, until he stood there, posture droopy and mouth in a tight line.

”Alberto?” mamá said and walked towards him. He looked up to face her. ”¿ _Cómo está usted_?”

Lance didn’t know why but Alberto chuckled without any mirth, and then he walked right past her, going into the kitchen. Mamá, Jorge and Lance followed him into the room. He opened a shelf to take out a glass.

”How was it?” Lance asked.

Again, Alberto laughed a mirthless laugh before putting going to the fridge and opening it. ”Oh, the dinner?” he asked with a voice so unlike my brother’s. He picked up a bottle of orange juice that he filled his empty glass with. ”It went _fantastic_!”

” _Mijo_ ”, mamá said and it sounded akin to a plea. Alberto visibly shivered and it took a while to realize that he was crying. Mamá was the first to react, enveloping her oldest son into a hug, making him shake more uncontrollably. Jorge and Lance looked at each other, both of them frowning.

After a while, mamá let go and gestured towards the glass. ”Drink”, she said. ”Then speak, _mi vida_.”

Alberto was sobbing, trying to swallow down his tears or regain control over his breathing. It took some moments but then he had calmed down enough to drink his juice.

Mamá motioned for him to take a seat on one of the chairs by the small kitchen table. It looked more like he fell down than sat down on the chair. Lance had never seen him look so broken.

”Now, tell us, _corazón_ ”, said mamá and sat down next to him, offering a hand for him to hold.

Alberto sniffed, taking another mouthful of his juice before sighing. ”Angie”, he said, swallowing. ”Her mom. She… she _asked_ me about Saturday”, he continued, his eyes focused on the tabletop for a while before closing his eyes. He wiped away a few tears that were threatening to fall.

”What did Angie ask you?” Lance asked in a low voice.

Alberto quickly glanced up at his brother before looking back down. ”She asked me why… _why_ we–” he swallowed again. Lance felt his patience starting to wear thin. ”She said we’re all in America, so why we speak _Spanish_.” Lance stared at him, his body stiffening, just like mamá’s and Jorge’s. ”She said she didn’t mean to offend us or anything.” Alberto wiped desperately at his eyes before pulling up the hem of his shirt to dry his tear-wet face with. ”She said that her grandchildren shouldn’t have to learn anything but English.”

Mamá basically pushed herself out of her seat in order to hug Alberto who was shaking and sobbing again. Standing there, watching them and hearing what he had said… Lance can’t imagine ever having felt this cold.

”It’s our culture”, said Jorge. ”We’re _Cubano._ ” A shaky laugh escaped Alberto and Lance could see Jorge smirking at that. ”It’s not like the US has an official language, _anyways_. They’re just pissed because they don’t understand, so of course they’d rather us talk to each other in a language _they_ understand, instead of actually taking the time to learn about our language and culture.”

” _Yeah_ ”, Lance agreed, crossing his arms.

Mamá let go of Alberto and leaned back in her chair, looking between the three of them. ” _Mis hijos_ , don’t talk like that”, she said. ”Don’t talk like there’s a ’them’ and a ’we’.”

” _But_ ”, Jorge started but mamá cut in.

”¡ _No_!” she said sternly. ”You will _not_ think that all Americans want our culture gone because of the words of a few un… _un_ …” she sighed. ” _Deseducado_.”

” _So_ _what,_ if they don’t know stuff?” Jorge asked. ”We have to learn about their stuff all the time.”

Mamá closed her eyes. ”You’re beginning to sound like those who are against us, _mijo_. This talk of how they should change because they tell us to change. We should all change, no one is perfect, _mis hijos_. Someone tell you to leave or to change the way you talk, you tell that person ’ _no! I am as much part of this as you are and the Lord told us to welcome all_ ’”

Quietly, Alberto sniffed and swallowed a few times before turning to hug mamá. ” _Gracias_ ”, he said.

”Always”, she said with a smile on her lips.

”Mami”, said Jorge after long beats of silence.

Mamá turned to look at him, her face confused. ”¿Sí?”

Jorge straightened his posture and raised his chin proudly. ”Do I have your permission to change my name?”

The room was quickly filled with tension as mamá, Alberto and Lance stared at the youngest brother and youngest son who never even flinched.

”¿ _Como_?” Mamá frowned at him but all he did was smile at her reaction.

”I want to change my last name to Rodriguez”, he said. ”To _your_ name.”

”Why?”, she asked him, her eyes closed.

Jorge looked surprised by that. ”Because I want to”, he said.

Mamá sighed. ”Sí, but _why_?”

”Read my name on a piece of paper and no one will think my first and last names should go together. As if some white guy decided spelling ’George’ with a ’j’ and without the ’e’ makes the name more _unique_.”

” _Jorge_!” Mamá said sternly. ”Your name does not make you who you are. If you want to change your name, _está bien_ , do it after you’re eighteen like Sofía did.”

”But it feels like Rodriguez fits me more than having my American father’s name!” he exclaimed stubbornly. ” _His_ name!”

”¡ _Basta_! Don’t talk about your _padre_ like that!” she said. After that, she stood up and looked at Alberto, Jorge and Lance for a moment each before saying. ”I’m going to bed now and I do not want to hear another word about this again. ¡Que se duerma usted!”

”Buenas noches”, the rest of them said simultaneously. Mamá nodded slightly before exiting the kitchen.

”She was overexaggerating, right?” Jorge said.

”Dude”, Lance said. ”What the _fuck_?”

Jorge turned to look at him, his dark eyes narrowed. ”It’s not like you’d understand, okay?”

Lance frowned. ” _Hey_! What’s _that_ supposed to mean?”

”Out of all of us, Sofía, you and Clara are the _only_ ones who can move up north, get paler and then pass as white, what with your blue eyes and American names”, he said. ”But the rest of us?” He chuckled but it was bittersweet. ”How many white kids are called Jorge or Alberto or Novia? Novia could probably get passed as having gotten a _unique_ name.”

”Stop talking like this, bro”, Lance said, his eyebrows knitted and nose scrunched up. ”What’s your deal anyways? You think I’m gonna walk outta here and start acting like I’m not half Cubano?” He asked. ”You heard mamá, we can’t change who our dad is and this convo is over.” Lance turned to leave, just like mamá had, but his brother’s voice called out yet again.

”Whatever you say, _ocean eyes_ ”, he said. For just a second that felt infinitely longer did Lance freeze in his tracks, staring in front of himself at nothing. Yes, he loved his eyes, he loved the deep blue of them and why should he beat himself up about genes anyways? Why should _he_ feel ashamed or guilty of having inherited dad’s eyes instead of mom’s brown ones? He knew he shouldn’t, but he still did. Jorge’s comment was like a punch to the gut and then he…

Lance took a step forward and another to get more and more distance between him and his brothers. A part of him had expected Alberto to intervene but he had just sat there watching his brothers as if they were some sort of drama show for his entertainment.

When Lance went to brush his teeth later, he avoided meeting his eyes through the reflection, afraid to see his dad staring back at him.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warnings: puns

**LANCE**

 

”What day is the appointment?” Lance asked. Hunk looked terrified.

”Uhm”, he said. ”Thursday.”

Lance's arm moved to slap his shoulder as if by reflex. ” _Dude_!” He exclaimed with a grin. ”That is so _soon_.”

”I _know_!” Hunk said, burying his face in the palms of his hands.

” _Dude_!” Lance said again. ”Chill, okay? It’s gonna go great”, he told Hunk as he peeked at he through his fingers. ”And you know why?” Lance asked with an expression that was equal amounts grin and smirk.

Hunk sighed, putting his hands down, straightening up. ”Why?”

Lance raised his chin proudly, pointing a thumb towards himself. ”Because you’ll have _me_ by your side.” Hunk snorted. ”The Incredible Hunk and Super-Lance!” Lance imitated a commentator’s voice while making swooshing hand gestures. Hunk started laughing before joining in.

”Follow the epic battles of the Epic Duo!”

” _Dude_!” Lance exclaimed. ”We need a group name like the _Avengers_ has or y’know _Guardians of the Galaxy_.”

” _Yes_!” Hunk agreed, punching the air in front of him. ”But, uhm… like what?”

Lance shrugged. ”It needs to be cool, though. Like _me_.” Hunk coughed. ”Like _us_ , I mean, of course, buddy.”

”Oh, I know!” Hunk exclaimed. ”I’ll have like lightning power, because-”

”You wanna be an engineer, yeah I know”, Lance cut in.

”- So like the thunderbolts!”

Lance blinked at him. ”But that excludes _me_ , and we’re a duo, Hunk!”

”Oh right, sorry”, he said. ”But what’s your superpower?”

Lance shot him his finger guns with a smirk, saying, ” _Laser guns_.”

” _Oooh_!” Hunk said spookily with a grin. ”We’ll be like, _let’s bolt on_. You know, since I got thunder and you got laser. Or it can be like, turn the bolt on?”

” _Bolt on_ ”, Lance parroted with a frown. ”You know what, it’s not too bad, Hunk.” Hunk grinned at him.

” _Bolt On_ it is!” he punched the air again.

”In the next issue”, Lance exclaimed. ”Your favorite superheroes, _Bolt On_ , take the step towards _true love_ or _infinite pain_.” Lance squeezed his hand dramatically, holding it against his chest.

Silence.

”Infinite pain”, Hunk repeated with wide eyes.

Lance sighed. ”Hunk”, he said. ”Who’d want to read a comic issue when they already know it’ll have a happy ending?”

”Don’t _all_ issues have happy endings?”

”Yeah”, Lance sighed in exasperation. ”With some pain between the covers first.”

”True”, he agreed. ”But _infinite pain_? Really?”

”Where’s your dramatic sense, huh?”

Hunk shrugged. ”It got brutally murdered by _nerves_!”

Lance grinned at him before opening his mouth to give a clever retort when someone behind them addressed him.

”Lance McClain?”

His eyes widened as he stared at Hunk and he stared back at him. ”Yeah?” Lance said, turning around to face Principal Stark. Once Hunk and Lance had jokingly asked her if her husband was Ned Stark and in response, she looked at them and deadpanned, ”No, but he’s mine and Tony’s son.” Then she told them ”goodbye, boys”, and turned around to leave while Hunk and Lance stared at each other muttering, ”did she just …?”

Needless to say, she’s super fucking cool if she understood what they were getting at. To this day, they don’t know if her husband’s name _is_ Tony Stark like Iron Man or if she was just kidding.

”Mr. McClain”, she said again, smiling slightly at him.

”Yes, Principal Stark”, he replied.

”You’re quite a charismatic and outgoing character”, she said in a way Lance couldn’t tell if it was meant to be an insult or a compliment, or neither.

He decided to take it as a compliment. ”Why, thank you”, he said and smirked.

”Good. I expect you to hold the graduation speech.” Then without a single response, she _left_ , saying, ”Have a nice day, gentlemen.”

Stunned, Lance turned to Hunk who mirrored his expression.

”Dude”, he said. ”Did she just order you to…” The bastard started laughing, a hand clutching his stomach as he gasped and laughed, tears of mirth shone in his eyes as Lance stared at him with a pout and crossed arms.

” _Hunk_!” He said in warning.

Hunk took a couple of deep calming breaths. ”Okay, Okay”, he said, then he took one look at Lance and started laughing again.

Lance's shoulders hunched forwards, his pout more noticeable. Lance buried his hands in the pockets of his pants. ”Fine”, he hissed. ”I’m gonna go to class”, he muttered.

” _Wait_ ”, Hunk said, his voice still vibrating with laughter. ”I can’t wait for your speech!” Lance shoved him away, a small smile on his lips he tried fighting back.

* * *

 

**SHIRO**

”How are you feeling?”

”Well”, Shiro began with a thoughtful expression. ”Apparently, I was in a car crash that put me in a coma for three months and cost me my arm. My parents decided to spontaneously visit some of dad’s childhood friends, leaving my brother alone in their house and not staying, waiting for me to wake up”, he said, and then, after a moment of silence, he deadpanned, ”I’m _great_.”

 

The nurse looked at him with a small smile. ”A lot of stuff has happened to you, I know”, she said. ”But it’s important to stay _positive_. Don’t forget that you _woke up_ after being comatose for three months”, she told him rationally. ”Some doesn’t have that luxury.”

” _Luxury_ ”, Shiro parroted with a scoff, averting his eyes from the nurse to instead stare at the gray wall beside him. ”I was out for months. My dad drove the car that put me here and instead of visiting me, he left the country with my step mom.” He sighed. ”The least he could’ve done was to leave a message. Or give me a call. Instead, they just _left_. That they left me, I can deal with. But leaving _Keith_?” Shiro shook his head. ”I’ll never forgive them for that.” When he turned back to look at the nurse, her face tight, Shiro sighed. ”I’m sorry”,heI said. ”I shouldn’t complain about this to you.”

”It’s okay”, she replied. ”If you want I can ask someone from the Psychology Department to come by.” She pointed gestured behind her, her thumb pointing towards the door.

Shiro shook his head. ”No, it’s okay”, he said but he knew deep down that he probably should.

”Pent up emotions are never good”, she told me. ”If you change your mind, you know how to contact me.” Shiro nodded yes. ”You have visitors”, she continued. ”Do you want me to let them in?”

Shiro looked at her with wide eyes. ”Yeah”, he told her and she smiled kindly at him before turning to walk away.

* * *

 

**KEITH**

”Hey”, Keith said as Pidge and him was sitting by Shiro’s side in his hospital room. They had decided to go to the hospital to visit him right after school, their bags laid on the floor by the door ”How are you feeling.”

The smile grazing Shiro’s lips wasn't quite genuine or maybe just tense or tired. Keith was just happy to see him awake and alive, even though it was under these circumstances. ”Getting better”; he replied. ”How are you, Pidge?”

Pidge smiled a little before shrugging. ”I’m good”, they said. ”Can’t wait until summer starts for real so me and Matt can mess around more with Rover.”

”Rover?” Shiro frowned.

”He’s my _robot_ ”, Pidge responded with pride.

Shiro smiled. ”Sounds really cool, Pidge”, he said and Pidge beamed. ” _God_ , I missed a lot didn’t I?” His laugh lacked its mirth. ”It’s almost summer”, he said quietly, not quite a whisper. It sounded like he couldn’t really believe it was true. ”My baby brother has just _one_ more year to go ’til graduation”, Shiro announced, shaking his head. This time his grin was genuine and Keith couldn’t help but mirror it. ”Speaking of brothers.” He turned back to Pidge. ”How’s Matt?”

”He’s talking about Timers a lot. Thinking about getting one, can’t say you didn’t have something to do with it.”

Keith snorted as his brother’s eyebrows shot up in surprise but his amusement fled the moment Shiro turned to him with a smile.

”You should try online dating”, Shiro said from where he laid on his hospital bed. ”Maybe you’ll find someone. It should be easier to find a nice someone that way.” The words, _since you’re so against getting a Timer_ , hung in the air between them, like a chilly presence of a ghost you’re forced to acknowledge. That’s what a Timer was for him; a _ghost_. Ever since everyone was able to get set up with a device it had been a constant presence in Keith's life. Wherever you go you can hear someone talk about it. Those discussing how their soulmate was going to be like. Those who say they can’t wait to meet their ”one”.

 _What if you’re aromantic?_ , Keith wondered. Like if you don’t experience romantic attraction can the Timer tell you the day you’re going to meet your best friend? Or what other kinds of soulmates can there be? Can you have one sexual soulmate but another romantic one? How does it work if you’re polyamorous?

Keith had so many questions he didn’t know if he would ever get answers to and the one person he knew he could ask would probably not give him an answer Keith would understand.

Anyways, that’s how he had found himself in this position; creating a profile on OkCupid with his brother and best friend next to him. The three of them huddled together around Keith's computer in the gloomy hospital room. The world was basically pulsing with the whole thing with the Timers ever since it launched, and thus Keith shouldn’t really have been surprised that you could synchronize your Timer with the website.

Shiro started talking about how short life was and how nice it was to share it with someone, and, just to distract him from asking or complaining about our parents, Keith complied.

”How would your best friend describe you?” Keith read out loud.

”Temperamental, impulsive, introverted and stubborn”, Pidge responded matter-of-factly.

Keith turned to glare at them. ”I’m serious”, he said.

Pidge smiled and said, ”So was I.”

Shiro sighed. ”Okay, sure”, he said. ”Maybe just go for the Usual Five?”

”The Usual Five?”

” _Yes_. Like, Passionate, perceptive, ambitious, kind and physically fit”, Shiro explained. Pidge and Keith turned simultaneously to look at him with an eyebrow raised each. ” _What_?” he hissed.

”Nothing”, Pidge and Keith said.

”A picture is next.”

”Do you have any selfies worthy enough for a dating site?” asked Pidge with a smirk.

”Yeah, I do”, Keith said.

”I’m not so sure”, said Pidge.

”Me neither”, said Shiro.

Keith told them both to shut up as he searched and picked a selfie he felt proud enough of. It had been taken a year ago, he had just hung up his Alien-poster in his bedroom that was clean for once, and he took the selfie to send to Pidge who were almost as excited as him about the poster since they have one, too.

”This will be fun”, Pidge announced a little too smugly as Keith's computer screen read, ”Answer questions to calculate your best matches.”

”Oh boy”, said Shiro.

”About how long do you want your next relationship to last?” Keith read.

”The rest of my life”, teased Pidge with a snort.

”A few months to a year, I guess”, Keith said and clicked the box and then checked the same box for his ”ideal match”.

”Why can’t you pick both?” asked Shiro as the next question, ”Choose the better romantic activity” popped up.

”You’d want both?” Keith asked.

”Kissing in Paris and kissing in a tent are both great romantic options.”

Keith scoffed before picking kissing in a tent. ”I wonder what Allura’d say”.

”What?” Shiro asked.

”Nothing”, Keith said.

Together, the three of them asked more of these awkward questions, mostly in silence until ”Are you ready to settle down and get married right now?”

Pidge started laughing at the expression on Keith's face.

”Hmm”, said Shiro, staring at the screen. ”’ _Get married yes, settle down no_ ’”, he parroted with a thoughtful expression. ”What’s that supposed to mean?”

Pidge and Keith shrugged.

”I’m not even eighteen yet”, Keith said as he checked the ”no way”-box.

”Is it done now?” Pidge asked when ”assembling your profile” was shown before switching to a white and blue page and they sighed in what was probably relief. In the left corner was Keith's selfie and beneath it a summary and some empty text-boxes.

”You can keep answering questions”, Shiro exclaimed and pointed at the small white box at the bottom of the page. ”It’s that or explain more about yourself.” Keith clicked the ”answer” button as fast as he could.

* * *

 

**LANCE**

Lance hated calculus for two reasons.

1\. He hated it.

2\. Graduation was in two days and having a Suduko race was his teacher’s idea of ”something fun to do for the last class in High School before graduation”.

Meh.

Lance hated it.

After their teacher handed out the Suduko sheets upside down and when he told his students to start filling it in, he timed them. The fastest correct solution to the puzzle would get a candy bag. The candy didn’t even look edible. The damn licorice made Lance want to barf just looking at it.

Hunk, however, was so engaged in the Suduko, he scribbled numbers faster than he could eat a burrito. And that’s saying something. Lance could swear Hunk would win, he’s one of the smartest people Lance has met. He even thinks solving problems and math stuff is _fun_!

Lance shivered at the thought.

While the rest of the class got drawn into the Suduko hell, Lance checked his phone, browsing through every other app he had. He almost pressed Candy Crush when he remembered the last time he failed to finish a level and swore off candy for a month. Hunk called it hell.

Instead, Lance went to check some of his dating apps, just for fun. It’s actually pretty awesome to browse profiles and pictures of people you’ve never met, and some you’ll never meet. Lance looked at his profile picture with pride in his chest. It was a good selfie. He looked pretty badass with his cap backwards.

Dating apps had pretty much been ruined after the Timers were launched. Most users are just looking for online friends or some fun before they meet their ”one”. But for those without Timers? A user can check your profile and see if you have a Timer linked to your account or not, some of them have insulted Lance's lack of it several times. Either they will tell him that he don’t believe in true love or that he just want sex. All this talk of Timers kinda put Lance off of it for a while, he knows he’ll probably get one after he turns 18 because of family tradition and the pact Hunk and him had.

There’s a search button on OkCupid for users with Timers or users without. There’s a search button where a user can put in a tie period to find other users with the same time period or something. Maybe Hunk’ll download a dating app and use this function to get to know his ”one” before they even meet.

Lance sent a different pick-up line to every pretty face he found, knowing most of them would probably not even respond to it. There’s no harm in trying, though.

The lesson was finished the moment our teacher announced Hunk as the Suduko Champion and handed Lance's beaming friend his licorice. Lance high-fived Hunk, offering a lame death threat if he’d eat the candy in a close proximity to him. Hunk just laughed.

* * *

 

**KEITH**

It was Pidge that had told Keith to get OkCupid as an app on his phone, so he completely blamed them for his current situation.

During the Social Studies class, his phone buzzed, the black screen lighting up to reveal a notification from OkCupid, telling him he got a message.

”Dude”, his tablemate said, looking down at his phone. ”You’re on a _dating app_?” He looked disgusted before eyeing Keith's right wrist with a raised eyebrow.

Keith crossed his arms, looking at him. ”So?” He asked. In response, he merely sneered at Keith before turning to look back at their teacher.

When the class was finished and Keith stood alone by a corner, he picked up his phone and pressed the notification.

**LeonMcAzul**

_If you were a vegetable, you’d be a cute-cumber ;)_

Keith blinked at the message for a while before responding.

**AlienStarseed53**

_Is that supposed to be an innuendo?_

He clicked his way to check their profile.

**_My self-summary_ **

_The name’s Lance but you can call me the yin to your yang ;) I’m just a nature kinda guy who knows the beach is the No.1 place to be_

**_What I’m doing with my life_ **

_Saving money for college because ocean is the coolest place on Earth_

(That didn’t even make sense…)

**_I’m really good at_ **

_Where to begin? ;)_

**_Favorite books, movies, shows, music and food_ **

_Books: ask me_

_Movies: any good action roll with a car chase or any of the Epic Trio (Lord of The Rings, Star Wars and Harry Potter)_

_Shows: Heroes, Shadowhunters, NCIS_

_Music: a little bit of everything I guess_

_Food: My best pal’s or mamá’s cooking!!!!_

**_On a typical Friday night I am_ **

_Procrastinating homework or out with some friends_

**_You should message me if_ **

_You want a new friend I guess lol_

After having skimmed through his profile Keith came to his pictures. He was the opposite to Keith when it came to amounts of selfies. And _good_ selfies.

On Keith's profile, he only had one picture. One really _good_ picture.

Lance had _eight_.

Keith clicked on the first one before staring at the screen for a while.

A buzz and a banner notification stole his earlier undivided attention from the picture.

**LeonMcAzul**

_Omg_

_Why did you have to make this weird?_

Keith rolled his eyes before pressing his finger to the banner.

**AlienStarseed53**

_Me?_

_What did I do?_

**LeonMcAzul**

_I offered a perfectly nice pick-up line and you had the audacity to misinterpret it!!!!_

**AlienStarseed53**

_…_

_Okay_

**LeonMcAzul**

_Okay??!??!!_

**AlienStarseed53**

_Yeah_

_My next class is starting soon so i’ll ttyl i guess_

**LeonMcAzul**

_Oh shit_

_Yeah, same_

_Ttyl cute-cumber ;)_

Keith stared at the last message before rolling his eyes and putting his phone in his pocket. Keith decided he needed all his concentration in English before sighing.

* * *

 

**LANCE**

During Lance's Spanish class, he started scribbling down ideas for the speech he was made to hold. The fact that he thought it would be really fun to do is irrelevant.

So far on the paper was,

_Principal Stark’s hero husband_

_Puns_

_Timer puns (If a timer went off when you go to the school of your dreams, this school would never hear the ringtones) (Schools introduced timers first, nothing says true love as a student hearing class is over)_

_More puns_

_Insult the food?? Idk_

It wasn’t much, Lance knows but _still_! It’s a lot more than it was ten minutes ago.

Mr. Gomez was cool enough to know his students wanted to watch a movie for their last class before summer. Mr. Gomez was, however, _not_ cool enough to know not to pick a fucking _horror movie_! Lance still have nightmares after having watched Pan’s Labyrinth as a child because Sofía had dared him to watch with her.

Lance hates horror movies, so he was happy with any kind of distraction. He had his headphones in his ears, listening to Neon Trees, their songs were like taking a happy pill if that makes sense.

Lance had just added another Timer pun when his phone vibrated with a ding.

**AlienStarseed53**

_Hey I’m back_

_Class got canceled_

**LeonMcAzul**

_Welcome back_

**AlienStarseed53**

_I don’t really know what else to write atm_

_Your name is Lance?_

**LeonMcAzul**

_What’s wrong with it??_

**AlienStarseed53**

_Nothing!_

_Just…_

_Why ”Leon”?_

**LeonMcAzul**

_It’s Spanish for lion_

**AlienStarseed53**

_So you’re basically Lion McAzul?_

Lance shook his head as he buried it in the palms of his hands. He didn’t know if he wanted to laugh or cry so he did neither. He rolled his eyes, instead, before typing a response.

**LeonMcAzul**

_Lion McBlue, actually_

_Azul is Spanish for blue_

**AlienStarseed53**

_So you like lions and blue?_

_And spanish, too, i guess_

**LeonMcAzul**

_I’m a Leo, you know like horoscope, and yeah my fave color is blue_

_And yeah, its my first language_

**AlienStarseed53**

_Cool, I guess_

**Leon McAzul**

_I’m gonna take a wild guess here but…_

_You’re into aliens, space and maybe gardening??_

**AlienStarseed53**

_What gave it away?_

_Also no_

_About gardening_

**LeonMcAzul**

_lol_

_So…._

_Aliens huh_ _( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)_

**AlienStarseed53**

_Yeah_

_What’s with it?_

**LeonMcAzul**

_Nothing_

_( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)_

_And tbh having aliens as a username feels kinda risky_

_Someone might think you’re…_

_Up_

_To something…_

**OfALiensAndKnives**

_…_

_That was either a Harry Potter reference_

_Or a pun_

**LeonMcAzul**

_Both are true_

_Also, so you know of it_

**AlienStarseed53**

_Space?_

_Oh, you mean the ”Epic Trio”?_

_Yeah, I know of it_

**LeonMcAzul**

_You’ve memorized my profile, huh_

_( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)_

_Anyways, you got Skype??_

**AlienStarseed53**

_You mean you wanna keep talking?_

**LeonMcAzul**

_Yeah_

_You’re entertaining_

**AlienStarseed53**

_…_

**LeonMcAzul**

_So…._

_Skype??_

**AlienStarseed53**

_Oh right_

_It’s OfAliensAndKnives_

**LeonMcAzul**

_Cool_

_Again with the aliens tho??_

_And knives??_

_OvO_

**AlienStarseed53**

_Problem??_

**LeonMcAzul**

_Nah_

_Unless your a serial killer looking for your next victim_

**AlienStarseed53**

_…_

_/You/ messaged /me/…._

**LeonMcAzul**

_Fair point_

_Gimme a min i’m gonna add you_

* * *

 

**KEITH**

 

”You doing okay?” Pidge asked Keith as they sat outside of school for the sole reason that he found it calming. Pidge hated the outdoors, but they did it for their friend, like a true friend would. 

Keith sighed, resting the hand, holding his phone against his thigh. ”Yeah”, he said.

Pidge smiled but it was a bitter one. ”Don’t lie to me, _Starseed53_ ”, they teased. 

”You know I’m not okay, so why do you ask?”

They were silent for a while, so Keith turned to look at them only to see they were already observing him. ”Because you’re my friend.”

Something inside of him told him to look away, knowing that he would never be used to _Pidge_ looking at him as if he was broken, because Pidge was always the first to fix stuff and make it better. Need something? They’re going to go look for it until they find it. 

”I know”, Keith said after a while before sighing, closing his tired eyes. ”He asked about them.”

”About who, Keith?” Slowly, he turned back to look at Pidge, looking into their eyes he knew his own said it all. ”Your parents?” they whispered as if stunned. ”And what did you say?”

”Nothing”, Keith said, his voice shaky and hoarse. ”Allura told him they’re on a vacation.” He closed his eyes, taking a few deep breaths. ”He hates them for leaving us.” Keith swallowed, shaking his head slightly. ”He hates them for leaving _me_.”

Pidge didn’t say anything, and really? He couldn’t find it in him to blame them for it. It wasn’t their job to fix this, even though Keith know they do want to. 

Instead, they reached out a hand to grip his shoulder and squeezed, knowing it was all the comfort that he needed. Keith smiled the biggest smile he could muster, which was the smallest smile he's had but it took the most energy to possess.

Suddenly, his phone buzzed with a new notification. Keith turned to look at Pidge’s reaction as their smile became wider and wider until they grinned from ear to ear at him. 

”Don’t”, Keith warned. They started cackling out an illegible response. Keith glared at them halfheartedly as he picked up his phone, staring at the Skype notification. 

_LeonMcAzul wants to add you_

_”Hey alien”_

Keith stared at the automatic message as well as the introductory message before pressing ”accept”, writing back a quick response.

**OfAliensAndKnives**

_Hey_

**LeonMcAzul**

_(Wave)_

_So whats up?_

”Who’s it?” Pidge asked but Keith shushed them.

”No one”, he muttered, typing back to Lance. 

”Sure”, Pidge said and Keith knew before he glanced at them that they were smirking a little. 

**OfAliensAndKnives**

_Not much, you?_

**LeonMcAzul**

_Idiot teacher decided to show a horror movie for spanish class (unamused)_

**OfAliensAndKnives**

_so i take it you don’t like horror movies?_

**LeonMcAzul**

_Bingo_

_So im tryin to write some ideas for a speech (unamused)_

”You know it’s rude to text someone when you’re with a friend, right?”

Guilt blossomed in Keith's chest as he glanced at Pidge with a guilty expression. ”I can tell him I’m busy”, he said.

Pidge’s smirk widened. ”Nah”, they said. ”I’ll go check on Rover or something.”

Keith frowned. ”You sure?” He asked. 

”Yeah. You know where to find me.” And with that, they waved goodbye. He watched as they walked away a bit before turning back to his phone. 

**OfAliensAndKnives**

_I guess you don’t like that either..?_

**LeonMcAzul**

_Nah_

_I think its gonna be fun_

_Its just…._

_Meh_

_So much work_

**OfAliensAndKnives**

_Oh_

_I see_

_What you got so far?_

A moment later and a picture popped up in their chat. A picture of what must’ve been his notebook filled with scribbles and notes for, supposedly, the speech. Half of the notes were puns. Keith rolled his eyes.

**OfAliensAndKnives**

_Puns_

_You hvae that kinda humor then?_

_*Have_

**LeonMcAzul**

_Excuuuse me_

_Puns are awesome_

_If theyre not too bad ofc_

**OfAliensAndKnives**

_Aren’t puns supposed to be bad?_

**LeonMcAzul**

_Details_

**OfAliensAndKnives**

_…_

**LeonMcAzul**

_So i take it you dont appreciate the gift that is puns_

**OfAliensAndKnives**

_I mean_

_Those Timer ones were pretty funny_

**LeonMcAzul**

_( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)_

**_OfAliensAndKnives_ ** _i_

_…_

_Good luck i guess?_

**LeonMcAzul**

_Tnx_

_Not that i need it tho ;) ;)_

Keith raised an eyebrow at the message, not knowing what more to reply, he put his phone down to instead enjoy the silence. It always gave him time to think, even though he tried not to.

 

* * *

 

**ALLURA**

_It’s my fault_ , Allura thought.

She hates blaming herself, but she could not help it. The look on Shiro’s face when he asked, he was so confused and Keith…

Keith. He looked like a deer caught in headlights and Allura knew the pain he had gone through these past months, she may have only seen a fragment of it but it was enough to see the pain behind his eyes. Allura couldn’t let him go through it again for the same reason she couldn’t let Shiro deal with it so soon. He just woke up, he needs time to readjust to what he’s lost and the pain that comes with that. He doesn’t need more pain, he’s had enough.

Maybe it’s wrong of her to lie. _Of course_ it was! Allura just wanted to protect him, is that so bad? She don’t want to see the man she loves in any more pain, he’s had enough. When he can take it, she’ll tell him.

Keith had been furious with her when she told Shiro their parents left the country. He was furious that Shiro would hate their parents for something that didn’t happen. For something that was just based on a lie. Allura knew he hated lying to him, _she_ hated lying to him, too, but she told herself it was just for the best.

She was wrong.

Keith spent almost all his time in the cellar again.

”I can’t believe they would do that”, Shiro told Allura as she sat by his bed in his gray hospital room. ”When Keith fell off his bike and broke his arm when he was six, they didn’t leave his side the whole way to the hospital. They sat outside the entire time, too. My grandparents had to come babysit me to make sure I wasn’t alone.” Allura sat in silence, squeezing his hand, smiling at him. ”This doesn’t feel like them”, he continued.

”I’m sure they meant no harm with it”, she assured him.

Shiro met her eyes with a small smile of his own before he sighed and told her, ”I guess you’re right.”

 _It’s my fault_ , she thought.

 

* * *

 

 

**LANCE**

The moment Lance entered his house after school he knew it had been a mistake. He kind of wanted to just sneak into his room, lie down on his bed and listen to some music.

What had actually happened, mamá greeted him the moment he closed the door, ordering him to sit down in the kitchen to plan for the graduation dinner. Another thing Lance hadn’t expected was that all his siblings sat around the table. Even Sofía was there, which felt kind of strange since she lived in another city, but it should’ve been expected. Why? Well, because of _family_.

”Who do you want to invite, _mi vida_?” mamá asked, a pen delicately held in her hand, hovering above a piece of paper.

”Uhm”, Lance said.

”Apart from us”, said Jorge. ”You can’t get rid of us.”

”Yeah!” agreed Clara, sticking her tongue out at Lance. Alberto and Sofía snorted.

”What about dad?” asked a frowning Novia.

After watching Sofía, Clara and Alberto turn to her with raised eyebrows, Lance's eyes turned as if of their own accord to observe Jorge’s reaction. He rolled his eyes, jaw clenched.

”Nah”, he said with an attempted smile. ”He probably forgot about us, anyways.”

” _Jorge_ ”, mamá hissed, her eyes wide, disbelieving, though he was more confused as to how she could be that after the conversation they had the other night.

” _What_?” Jorge hissed back with a shrug. ”I haven’t heard from him since he left, it’s not like he showed up at their graduations”, he said, waving a hand towards where Sofía and Alberto stood, before continuing, ”so why should we invite him this time?”

”It should be _Lance’s_ decision”, said Sofía, always the diplomat, as she nodded at him with a smile. ”So what do _you_ want, Lance?” she asked.

Lance closed his eyes. ” _Look_ ”, he began with a sigh. ”If you guys don’t want him here then he’s not gonna be on the list. Like, _hell_ , he’s not been here, like Jorge says, it’s just that…” he scratched his neck. ”Don’t add him mamá”, he continued. ”He doesn’t deserve it.”

”Damn, right he don’t.”

” _Jorge_!” mamá hissed again.

”You’re gonna invite Jessica, right?” Alberto looked at him with a slight frown and a hopeful smile. Lance smirked at him.

”If you _behave_ ”, he responded, waggling his eyebrows.

” _Lance_!” mamá hissed. Sofía shakes her head with an amused smile while Jorge cackled and Novia and Clara shared a confused glance at each other before shrugging.

”Why wouldn’t he behave?” Clara asked.

”Who else”, mamá said, pretending not to have heard Clara. Lance grinned at his oblivious little sister who, again, poked out her tongue at him.

”Just do the usual?”

”Was that a statement or a question?” Sofía looked amused.

”Both?” Alberto commented, mirroring Sofía’s expression. _God_ , Lance hated them both.

”I need to know how many I’ll have to cook for, _cari_ _ño_ ”, mam’a said a few moments later.

” _Nuestros abuelos_?”

Mamá eyed Lance with a certain sadness in her eyes. ”They can’t leave Cuba”, she informed the rest of them.

”But, _mami_ ,” Clara sniffed, shaking her head. ” _Why_?”

”This time doesn’t work for them, _mi vida_ ”, mamá told her with a reassuring smile. However, it only got worse after that as mamá had to comfort a screaming Clara who _wanted abuelas cookies_ and she _wanted them now_.

This time, Lance successfully sneaked away to his room, fell onto his bed and picked up his phone only to notice he had gotten a text from Hunk an hour ago.

**Incredible Hunk B)**

_Hows the speech goin???_

_:’D_

_Well,_ _shit_ , Lance thought as he skimmed through his backpack as fast as he could to look for the notebook, turning to the right page with a frustrated sigh.

All he had so far was puns. Not that there was anything wrong with that, because who doesn’t love a good pun? No one, that’s who.

Lance had read through the page twice or maybe seven times when there was a knock on his door followed by the squeaking sound of it opening.

”Alberto told me you were hiding away in your room”, Sofía said with a small, uncertain smile grazing her lips. ”I suspected it was to avoid the chaos that came from planning for your graduation dinner. Is anything up?”

Lance sighed, eyeing the notes on his lap for the graduation speech. ”Principal Stark ordered me to hold a speech.” Sofía’s eyes widened, her eyebrows raised. ”Really?” she asked. Lance waved her inside and she closed the door behind her before walking towards his bed to sit down next to him.

”Don’t tell mamá”, Lance said. ”I want it to be a surprise.”

”Yeah, _of course_! She’ll be so proud of you, you know.” Sofía smiled at him reassuringly before nodding at his notes. ”Can I see what you have so far?” Without comment, Lance grabbed his notebook and handed it to her. He observed her as her blue eyes, the same shade as his, skimmed through the page. ”Timer puns? _Really_?”

”Come on, sis”, Lance said with a toothy grin. ”You have to admit they’re pretty funny.”

Sofía smiled. ”Yeah, true”, she said before grinning. ”You remember that one about the jeweler?”

Lance chuckled, shaking his head. ”What did the Goldsmith tell the groom?” He asked. ”A Timer is everything, as long as you can get a _ring_ from it’”, he finished, shooting his sister two finger guns with a grin. She laughed, openly and free.

”I remember how we had to explain it to Novia.” Sofía’s smile was small but nostalgic, Lance's expression mirrored hers.

”Yeah”, he said before snorting. ”She was too dense to understand that the _ring_ meant both the Timer’s sound and the wedding band.”

Sofía nodded slightly, still smiling. ”Maybe your fellow graduates will appreciate some bad Timer puns”, she pondered.

”Yeah, maybe”, he agreed.

”Do you have a theme so far?” She raised a delicate eyebrow at Lance in question and he shrugged in response. ” _Lance_ ”, she said, rolling her eyes. ”You need a theme, like some kind of red thread that holds the speech together, makes it coherent”, she explained.

”Like _what_?” He asked.

”I don’t know”, she began, tapping a finger against her chin. ”Memories from High School. What you’re gonna miss vs what you won’t miss”, she proposed. Lance rolled his eyes. ”What you’ve learned from school? You can even bring up funny lessons like you learned that studying the last night before a test is purely an act of idiocy.” Lance couldn’t help but fidget under her accusing gaze.

”Yeah, maybe”, he said with a frown.

”If you talk about what you’ve learned, you can even bring up class puns.”

Lance grinned. ”I like how you think, sis.” She smirked at him.

* * *

 

**KEITH**

Keith started spending all his free time in the cellar again, both to drown out his emotions and thoughts but also because he couldn’t stand looking at Allura. He was so mad at her for lying to Shiro but also for understanding why she did it. Keith hated understanding that she didn’t want him to hurt anymore, but that doesn’t mean he agree with her. 

Because he doesn’t. 

Shiro deserved to know and Keith hated lying to him. Every time he hears him complain about their parent’s lack of contact and their irresponsible choices, Keith just wants to scream the truth until his throat is numb and there’s no more air in his lungs. 

Allura had promised him that she’ll tell him the truth soon, when she thinks that he can take it. 

”He’s a champion”, Keith had told her. ”He deserves to know.”

She had looked away, her whole posture and expression radiated guilt to the extent that it almost felt like it belonged to him, too, and maybe it did. 

”No”, she had said. ”I know he’s strong, but he shouldn’t have to be.”

Keith shook his head, clenching his fist. ”You can’t make his decisions for him!” It was almost a shout, almost drained in the anger inside of him. 

”I want what’s best for him”, she had said.

”Well, congratulations”, Keith had spat. ”You’ve failed.” After that conversation, he has ignored her to the best of his abilities. He took to eating in his room or here in the cellar if he wasn’t in school. 

The part of the equation that she had forgotten, was that it hurt him, too. Hearing Shiro talk about their parents that way, it _killed_ Keith. 

He exhaled a shaking breath before punching the bag with as much force as he could muster, his arms were buzzing, his body wet, but it was the only way he knew how to deal with things. With pain. With thoughts. 

Even when he wished he didn’t have to. 

* * *

 

**HUNK**

”Dad didn’t want me to leave without having taken a _thousand_ pictures to keep for memory”, Hunk told Lance the moment they met up inside the school, both of them wearing the traditional dark robes and square hats. 

Lance snorted. ”Mamá was the same way”, he told him. 

Hunk grinned at him and he grinned back. ”Dude”, he said, his eyes widening. ”You’re gonna do the speech, right? Tell me you’re gonna do it!”

”I’m gonna do it”, he replied with a small smirk, his arms crossed over his chest. 

” _Yeah_ ”, Hunk exclaimed, punching the air. ”It’s gonna be so _awesome_ , man. Like, are you nervous? I’d be nervous. If I was in your shoes, I’d definitely be nervous.”

” _Hunk_!” Lance whined. ” _Now_ I’m nervous”, he announced, throwing his arms out dramatically, which almost landed a punch at a fellow graduate. Hunk snickered at Lance’s expression of horror before he turned to glare at him. 

”Dude”, he said, patting Lance's shoulder slightly. ”You’re gonna be fine. If anyone could do it, it’d _you_.”

Lance visibly sighed, his whole body relaxing as he smiled. ”Thanks, man”, he said. 

”Knock ’em dead”, Hunk said.

* * *

 

**LANCE**

When Principal Stark announced that it was time for him to hold the graduate speech, Lance glanced briefly at Hunk who shot him two thumbs up in reassurance. Hunk had been right earlier, though. If anyone could do it, it was _Lance_! 

Heh, some speech can’t kill a guy. Stark had said it herself! Even she knew Lance was the kind of guy who could do this. What had she said? Lance frowned. Oh, yeah, she said he was _charismatic_. He smirked at the memory. He can’t say she was wrong or anything but…

But, if Lance was that guy, why did he feel so nervous about it? Why did he feel so anxious about something so… so _no-big-dealish_? 

Gathering his courage and as much of his strength as he could muster, he walked up on stage, standing in front of the microphone, looking out at the audience of fellow graduates, teachers, parents, and siblings.

Lance closed his eyes and sighed, willing his nerves to dissipate.

”School has taught me a lot of important things”, he began, opening his eyes, letting them roam over his classmates and their families. ”It taught me what it feels like to belong somewhere and that studying the night before a test is common sense.” He grinned as he heard the laughter filling the space before him, his nerves slowly dissipating from his chest with every mirthful second. ”But the most important thing I learned in school was that Monday mornings _suck_.” More laughter and more nerves disappearing. Lance smirked with pride and confidence. 

”I’m not even kidding now. I swear that the majority of us hear the alarm go off and just wish we could do _anything_ but go to school”, Lance exclaimed with a dramatic sigh for emphasis. ”Speaking of alarms, Schools introduced Timers first because nothing says true love as a student hearing that class is over.” Lance grinned as the crowd started laughing again and he waited patiently for it to die down.

”School also taught me the value of weekends.” Murmurs of agreement swam over the crowd. ”Nothing could come close to the feeling waking up on Saturday, knowing you don't have to leave your bed unless you want to.” He smiled to himself, letting his eyes lock on some other’s before continuing, ”Or on Sunday night when you start grieving that the weekend is over so soon. But now we'll have a three-month long weekend, those of us without a summer job. It's even longer if you have nothing planned now that high school is done”, he continued.

”Speaking of high school, graduation is such a weird celebration”, Lance stated. ”We celebrate that school is finished and our teachers will talk about how important it is to be yourself and stick out but they still make us look identical.” He rolled his eyes before making his voice softer. ”We also celebrate leaving some people behind. There are a few from here that I'll be happy I won't meet again. The only way I can describe them is like they remind me of school in summer because they have no class.” Lance watched as Hunk grinned at him with thumbs up in the air. Lance winked at him.

”Another thing that I learned from school is how overstated math is”, he exclaimed, his voice scandalous. ”If math is so cool and logical, then why should we learn that we can multiply imaginary numbers with real ones? That sounds more like philosophy to me.” Lance paused for effect, watching smiles and small laughs from around the crowd, locking on Alberto’s and he smirked at him. ”Now, my brother wouldn’t agree with me. He loves math, that _nerd_.” Lance watched said brother’s reaction with a grin. His eyes were wide as he slowly shook his head. Meanwhile, Jorge was shoving his shoulder lightly. ”Once he sat down with me to help me with my homework and I just asked him, ’Hey, Alberto, why do you love math so much?’ And do you know what he told me?” Lance coughed, imitating his brother’s voice with a slightly too light tone. ”’Because math, you can always _count_ on.’” Lance placed his head in the palm of a hand, shaking his head while the crowd was bubbling with laughter. 

When silence came over the field again, he continued, ”Like I previously said, I learned a lot from school, but most of all I learned a lot from the people.” Lance turned to Hunk with a smile. ”From my best friend who taught me about loyalty and how to make the best pranks.” He looked back to the crowd, gesturing to where the teachers were and said, ”From some of my teachers that have helped me become a master procrastinator.” He grinned at the look on mamá’s face, equal amounts amused and disapproving. ”But the most important lesson that I learned was from my mom who taught me that nothing in life matters without a family.” Mamá’s expression changed dramatically to pride as she smiled up at him, her head leaning slightly against her shoulder.

”My mom is the first one I want to thank for this”, Lance said, raising his diploma for all to see. ”Thank you for helping me grow. For helping me separate right from wrong even though I sometimes didn't listen.” Lance grinned as he watched mamá and his siblings raise their eyebrows simultaneously. ” _Usually_ didn't listen.” 

”Thanks to my friends, High school wasn't half as bad as it could’ve been”, Lance said with a wink. ”Thanks to my coach I have a school relay to look forward to.” His voice was thick with sarcasm as he continued, ” _after_ school.” He rolled my eyes. ”The last thing that I learned from School was that Summer is the best time of the year, so let’s enjoy it!” Lance walked down from the stage as applause erupted from the crowd, a few whistles were heard that he knew came from at least Jorge and Hunk. 

Lance had never felt so free.

* * *

 

Later, when he went in search of his family, a hand on his shoulder stopped him, turning him around to face the strange man. 

” _What_ —” Lance hissed between clenched teeth but the rest of the sentence died as he stared up into familiar blue eyes and a smile that haunts him sometimes.

”Hello, son”, he said with a grin.

 


End file.
